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Final Challenge - Advanceshipping (Complete)

Well, this is my first fanfiction. I first posted it on Fanfiction.net on September 6th, and some segments later on BMGF; some of you may recognize this story from either of those sites. It's still incomplete, but I have generally received positive reviews on it. It's mostly an Advanceshipping story, but it also includes some Abilityshipping and Altoshipping. It may seem to be just about Ash's forthcoming battle with Cynthia at the moment, but as anyone who has read the rest of what I've put up on Fanfiction.net can tell you, the plot is a LOT more complex than that. Rated T. I hope that you enjoy.

Ash yawned and turned over in his bed, the morning sunlight falling on his face. His nose was tickled by a twitching lightning-shaped tail and, sneezing, he awoke. He pulled himself upright and stared around the room. A wide grin began to spread across his face.

It had been two years since his victory in the Sinnoh league. He had fought some of his toughest matches ever against Katie, Nando, and of course, Paul. He smiled, reliving the final match against Paul. It had been very close, but in the end Pikachu had managed to triumph over Paul's Electivire. After that, he had been permitted to take the Elite Four challenge, the final test for aspiring Pokemon Masters. The requirements for this were very tough - he had to defeat an Elite Four member of his choice from each of the four main regions before being able to battle the Champion. The kicker was that he couldn't lose a single match.

Those battles had been tough, but over the course of the next two years he had taken on and defeated Agatha of Kanto, Karen of Johto, Glacia of Hoenn, and Lucien of Sinnoh. His last opponent, the one he would battle today, was Cynthia of Sinnoh.

Ash stretched and jumped out of the bed. He knew that to defeat Cynthia he would need to use the strongest six Pokemon he had captured and befriended since leaving Pallet Town to start his journey ten years ago. Seven, he thought. That's how many Frontier Symbols I needed to beat the Battle Frontier. And then, when I beat the Frontier, I was offered the position of Frontier Brain. But I couldn't take it then - I'd only just learned about the Sinnoh League. I wasn't ready to just hang around, waiting for challengers to show up every few weeks.

He looked around his room and smiled slightly. He still didn't think he was ready, but while he was travelling around Sinnoh, Scott - the man who built the Frontier and had encouraged Ash to participate in it - had constructed an eighth location: the Battle Colosseum. Construction on it had been completed just as Ash was halfway through the Elite Four challenge. It truly was an amazing building. It was open to the elements in a similar way to both the Battle Factory and the Battle Palace so that flying types had room to manoeuvre. There was a large pool in the shape of a Poke Ball at the centre of the large circular field, surrounded on all sides by interchanging patches of Grass and Rock fields.

I don't think I'm ready to stop travelling yet, Ash thought. Maybe that's ok though. When I started the Elite Four challenge, May and Max began to tour a region I'd never heard of. The Frayen region sure does have a lot of unique Pokemon. I can't wait to see which Pokemon she caught. Thinking of his friends, he began to feel a little sad. While Brock, Misty, Tracey, Max, and Dawn had all managed to make it in time for this battle, May hadn't been able to arrive in time.

Ash sighed. He'd spoken to her only last night, but she had been stranded in Johto's Cianwood City because of a powerful storm. While Max had gone straight back to Petalburg City after travelling around Frayen, May had decided to compete in one last Frayen contest just for fun before heading straight to Kanto via the Johto sea routes.

He shook his head in disbelief at the memory of how powerful that storm had been. He had endured similar conditions during an eventful journey through the Orange Islands. He began to grow uneasy as he remembered how close to Cianwood the Whirl Islands were, and that a similar creature to the one involved in the Orange Island's storm had once lived there. Unconsciously, his hand moved to his chest, feeling the pendent beneath his sheet. "I'm just glad she's okay," he muttered. "At least the power plant was able to get the electricity flowing again so that I could at least talk to her."

"Chu?" he heard a voice say. He pushed away those thoughts and fixed a grin to his face, turning to Pikachu who had only just woken up and was looking at Ash enquiringly.

"It's nothing," he reassured his friend. "Just wishing that an old friend was here today." Pikachu nodded knowingly and sprang from the bed to Ash's shoulder. "Ready to win today, old pal?" he murmured.

"Pika!" Pikachu replied. His nose twitched. He jumped from Ash's stomach and sprang towards the door which opened automatically. Ash laughed and chased after his friend. It didn't take him long to realize that Pikachu was leading him into the kitchen.

"Morning, Brock!" he said brightly as he entered, sniffing the air. "Is that sausage I smell?" Brock laughed.

"Some things never change," he chuckled. He placed a big plate of sausage, pancakes, and a bowl of fruit salad on the table before sitting down across from the trainer. "How'd you sleep, Ash?"

"Great," Ash said, his mouth full of pancake as Pikachu jumped onto the table. "I'm really looking forward to the battle today. Only a couple of hours to go! Where's everyone else gone though?"

"Let's see... Max is out in the Colosseum training his Gardevoir... Professor Oak, Tracey, and Delia are on their way from Pallet Town - they didn't bother coming over for the night because it's the closest place to the Colosseum. I'm here, obviously, and I think that Misty is training her Gyarados with Max. As for Dawn, I'm not really sure where she -"

"I'm right here," Dawn interrupted from behind Ash. She pulled out a chair from the table and plonked herself down, grabbing a couple of pancakes and sausages, then stealing the ketchup bottle away before Pikachu could grab it. Her long blue hair swished around her head as she deftly tossed it backwards so that a few stray strands wouldn't enter her mouth as she ate. "Morning Brock, morning Ash," she added as an afterthought. Ash smiled at her.

"Morning Dawn," he replied.

"Did everyone manage to come?" she asked. His eyes looked suddenly downcast as once again he clutched at the pendant beneath his shirt, an action not missed by any of his table companions. Dawn looked sideways at Brock, who had a look of complete understanding on his face.

"Ash, you know that if it was possible she would have moved the continents to be here for you," Brock said gently. Ash was silent for a minute.

"I know," he said at last, "but I was really hoping that she would have been able to make it. She's the only one of my friends that just couldn't get here, because of that storm." Dawn looked at him with a winning smile.

"Ash, you're an official Frontier Brain now," she said. "You're the most experienced trainer that I know. You've travelled through Hoenn and Kanto with May, and you know that sometimes these things will happen. It's unfortunate, but there's nothing that can be done. If there was any way possible to get here today, May would have done it."

"Look on the bright side about today," Brock said, trying to lift his friend's spirits. "At least you'll finally be able to break in the Colosseum. Plus, as a Frontier Brain, you're allowed to carry around as many Pokemon as you want, just like Noland. Think how happy they'll all be, able to spend all of their time outside of their Poke Balls with you."

Ash looked up, a smile spreading on his face. "You're both right," he said. "I'm really looking forward to being able to spend more time with all of my Pokemon. I just don't think I'm ready to settle down yet though. I need a new challenge. What I really want to do is explore at least one more region, probably Frayen."

"Come on Pikachu," Ash said, now back at full spirit. "We can get in a little more training before the match. I want to make sure that my team is ready to battle! Thanks for the breakfast, Brock!" He dashed off, with Pikachu on his shoulder.

Brock sighed as he held up the nearly-empty ketchup bottle to eye-level. "You know, this was full this morning," he said to Dawn. She giggled.

"Yeah," he said, "made from tomato's picked straight out of the garden." Brock shook his head in disbelief. "That Pikachu sure does love his ketchup."

Dawn leaned in towards him. "Do you think we should tell him?" she asked. Brock shook his head.

"No," he said, "let it be a surprise. They haven't seen each other in so long. Thank goodness the Professor was still in Pallet Town when news came in about that storm. It was lucky that Gary was able to find it so quickly."

"Knowing those two, and what they'd do for Ash" he said, "I wouldn't be surprised if they were only a town away right now."

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I hope that you all enjoyed this first chapter. Yeah, I know that it was short, but most of the subsequent chapters are longer. I'll try to post one chapter a day on here until I'm caught up with where I am on Fanfiction.net

As for what you've got, I see no error in it. The style flows, and punctuation appeared to be flawless. Your plot is not yet developed enough for real anlysis, but I like your exposition skills. I'd wager a guess that May is coming for the battle anyway.

Honestly, you described their feelings well, didn't rush anything and i am feeling the drama. :P
Its just like the anime. You kept the anime style and put your own. Great job.
Like lz said, the plot's not that developed yet so lets see.
Wish you luck. You've got a reader here.

Thanks for the reviews guys. Here's Chapter Two. When I first wrote and posted it, I wasn't very happy with the way it turned out. I'm not still happy about the way it turned out, actually. But see what you think.

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Chapter Two: Return

Ash ran through the house just behind the Colosseum, rooms flashing by as he made his way outside. Stepping into the bright sunlight, he flexed his arms energetically and crossed the small strip of land to the structure that towered over him and housed the large circular battlefield that held the combination of Water, Grass, and Rock. He paused a moment as he entered, watching Max and Misty at the centre of the field, their Gardevoir and Gyarados sparring each other.

"Gardevoir, use Shadow Ball!" Max shouted. The white-green simian-shaped Pokemon brought it's long green arms together and a glowing purple-black ball began to form.

"Gyarados, dive underwater to dodge and then use Aqua Tail!" Misty retaliated. The gigantic Atrocious Pokemon, battling from the large deep pool at the centre of the field, ducked it's head under water. The Shadow Ball flew into the water, sending up a huge spray of water that momentarily blocked the water from view. A glowing blue tail sliced through the spray and connected with the Gardevoir. The Gardevoir soared backwards from the impact and landed further up in the grass, unable to battle any more.

"Gardevoir!" Max shouted, running to his Pokemon. He held up her head and murmured soothingly to her for a moment. He stood up, took his Poke Ball from his belt, and recalled her. Wiping his face quickly, he turned to Misty who was walking towards him. "That was a great battle, Misty. Thanks," he said.

"It was my pleasure, Max," she said with a smile. "It won't take long until you beat me though. You're stronger every time we battle."

"I might be getting stronger," he said, shaking his head, "but I'll never be able to beat you. Your Gyarados is too powerful."

"That's not true, Max," Ash said, walking towards them from the shadowed entryway, picking his way carefully through one of the rock field segments . Misty and Max both jumped, surprised by Ash's sudden appearance. "A Pokemon is only as strong as it's trainer. If you don't have any confidence in your Pokemon, they won't have any confidence either."

"He's right, Max," Misty told him. "A Pokemon's skills depend on the trust of the trainer. Call out your Gardevoir." Looking slightly puzzled, Max sent out Gardevoir. "Gardevoir," Misty said, kneeling in front of the Psychic-type, "you have an incredible friendship with Max. If the danger was real enough, would you give your life to protect him?"

"Gaar, Gardevoir," the Psychic-type responded with a nod.

"You see," Ash explained to Max, "it takes a lot for a human to earn the trust of a Gardevoir. But they have an incredible sense of loyalty that almost no other type of Pokemon does. They've even been known to sacrifice their life for their trainer, but only if they share a deep bond. Since Gardevoir would do that for you -"

"It means that we have a really strong friendship," Max realized, "just like you and Pikachu."

"Exactly," Ash laughed.

"Since when did you know so much about Gardevoir, Ash?" Misty asked with a smirk. "You're normally too busy charging into battle to think about things like loyalty."

"Are you kidding?" Ash asked. "The best thing about Pokemon is my friendship with them. Being friends is much more important than winning any battle. All of my Pokemon are as close to me as any Gardevoir ever was to it's trainer. Anyways, I know so much about Gardevoir because I almost had one myself."

"You mean that you almost caught a Gardevoir once?" Max asked excitedly. "They're really rare in the wild, how did you manage to find one?"

"It wasn't quite like that, Max," Ash laughed. He threw a Poke Ball into the air. "Come on out, Gallade," he called. In a beam of red light, a Pokemon erupted to the ground; roughly the same height as Gardevoir, it looked very similar but at the same time, very different.

"Erlade," it said.

"Wow, a Gallade!" Max shouted. "It's so cool! They specialize in close range battling, while Gardevoir prefer long-range battles because that makes moves like Psychic and Shadow Ball easier to use, but Gallade are so dangerous up close. They have huge loyalty to anyone who catches them, and they only evolve when they're -"

Ash smiled and shook his head slightly as he watched Max regurgitate everything he'd ever heard about Gallade. He turned to Misty and saw that she was smiling slightly too.

"So, when you say that friendship is more important than any battle, does that include today's?" she asked him.

"Yup," Ash answered. "I want to win of course, but Cynthia is one of the most powerful trainers alive, and I wouldn't want to force any of my Pokemon into doing something that they didn't want to do. I'll need some luck today, but I've beaten four members of the Elite Four, and done a lot of training too. I think I have a chance, as long as she doesn't use Rayquaza anyways." Misty look puzzled.

"Why would Cynthia have a Rayquaza?" she asked. "It's a legendary Pokemon, and probably impossible to capture."

"It's a long story," Ash said with a reminiscing grin, thinking of the time when he, Brock, and Dawn had been caught in the fantasy of a Mismagius.

"Have you chosen your team yet?" Misty asked. "You have a lot of Pokemon to choose from."

"Tell me about it," Ash said, shaking his head. "All of them want to battle, but I've decided on my six. I'll need speed, power, and luck to win so I've chosen the six that can help me out most with that. Two of them are on their way right now, so hopefully we'll be able to train a little before the match starts."

Misty sighed and looked around the battlefield. "I hope that our sparring didn't damage the field before the match," she said.

"Don't worry about it," Ash said. "The grass will dry, and the pool is self-filling. I can't see any actual damage, so I don't think that you two will have shown me up in front of the world when the match is filmed later today." Misty shoved him playfully.

"Oh, just go and train," she said, walking over to Max who was still staring at Gallade and spouting facts. "Come on, you," she said, taking Max by the ear and dragging him off.

"Hey wait, what are you doing? I'm not Brock!" Max yelled.

"You're looking more and more like him with the way you're staring at that poor Pokemon," Misty said. "Lets leave Ash to train."

"Okay, okay, just - ouch! - let go of me, it hurts - ouch!"

Ash chuckled as he watched the two leave. "Some things never change," he said to Pikachu.

"Pika pika," Pikachu agreed, hopping down from his shoulder.

Ash began walking towards the other side of the Colosseum. "Come on Gallade, lets get the others and train," he said. "I'm guessing that you want to battle today, right?"

"Er! Lade! Er! Lade!" Gallade muttered under it's breath, running to catch up with his trainer.

"Pika," Pikachu agreed, running alongside it.

Laughing, Ash put on a final spurt of speed to reach the exit from the Colosseum before either of his two Pokemon could catch up with him. A huge spurt of fire shot downwards from the sky, enveloping Ash completely and bringing him to a sudden halt.

"Erlade," the Pokemon called cheerfully as it dodged past the blackened trainer, saluting up at the sky with one of it's blades.

"Pika pi!" Pikachu called, waving it's arms excitedly at the sky.

Soot falling off of him at movement, Ash craned his neck skywards, He stared for a few moments until he distinguished two moving orange lights against the brilliance of the sun. The lights quickly grew into two distinct shapes, gliding down to the Colosseum.

"He's here!" Ash shouted, hopping up and down on alternating feet in his excitement. "And it looks like Liza and Charla came too! I'm down here, Charizard!"

The fire dragon roared in delight and shot down another torrent of flames, blackening Ash anew.

"Great to see you again, Ash," Liza smiled as she jumped the last few feet from Charla's back, landing deftly on the ground. "See how accurate Charizard's Flamethrower has gotten? He was able to hit you as you were running, from a couple of hundred feet up in the air! I think you'll be pretty happy with his power too. He's stronger than ever."

"Great!" Ash smiled, wiping the last of the soot from his face and turning to face his Pokemon. "Charizard, this is gonna be great! Are you ready to help me in my most important battle ever?" Charizard roared and shot jets of fire into the sky.

"I want to ask you something, Ash," Liza said, suddenly serious.

"Yeah?" he asked.

"See," she began, "the thing is that Charizard has just gotten too strong. None of the other Charizard in the Charicific Valley can even match him anymore. He beats them in battle every single time. I don't think that there is anybody left for him to train against anymore. So I was wondering if you'd like to take Charizard back now, and train with him together so that he can get stronger in ways that can't be learnt in the Charicific Valley."

"You mean... you mean that you want me take Charizard back? He wouldn't live in the Charicific Valley anymore?" Ash asked, stunned.

"That's right," Liza said eagerly. "You two could be together again properly, for the first time since Johto!"

"Well I don't know," Ash said slowly. "What do you want to do Charizard?" he asked. "Do you want to stay with your friends in the Charicific Valley, or would you like to be with me again?"

Without hesitation, Charizard stomped off behind Ash and let out a low roar. Ash looked at him for a moment and then threw his arms around Charizard's neck, laughing as tears streamed down his face.

Liza smiled as she watched the three friends reunite, with Gallade waiting a little shyly in the background - he hadn't met Ash's Charizard yet. She turned to Charla who was watching the scene with a little sadness.
"Don't worry, Charla," she whispered. "We'll visit them as often as we can. It's not as if the trip is a lot longer than it is to Blackthorn City, and we go there a lot, don't we?" Charla gave a sad little roar in reply, but her eyes brightened a little. Liza smiled, and was about to hop onto Charla's back when she noticed the little package that that she was holding securely.

"How could I have forgotten?" she muttered, slapping her head. "Hey, Ash!" she called turning around, "I have something for you!"

"Really?" he asked, surprised. "What is it?" Liza took the package from Charla's arms and gave it to Ash.

"It's a Pokemon egg," she explained. "I found it with Charla the other day. Look at the pattern on the side," she said, pointing towards the flames on the egg shell. "I'm pretty sure that it'll hatch into a Charmander. I think this is from your Charizard, so I want you to have it. Give it to someone special."

"Wow, Liza... Charla... thanks!" he exclaimed, his face lighting up. "I know just who to give it to!"

"I'll leave you to warm up with your Pokemon now," Liza said, looking at Charizard fondly. "Well, see you at the match, Ash! Good luck!"

"Thank you," Ash beamed. "And thank you for looking after Charizard for all of these years. You've taken really good care of him."

"Don't thank me," Liza said, her face embarrassed as she coughed slightly. "Thank Charla. She spent a lot more time with your Charizard than I did."

"Well then thank you, Charla," he said, transferring his gaze. "I really appreciate everything you've ever done for him." Charla growled, her orange face tinged with a slight shade of red as she shuffled slightly, looking at the ground. In a sudden movement, she shot two blasts of fire, one at Ash, the other at Charizard. Ash stood there, blackened again as Charla took to the air, circled around, swept down and pulled Liza onto her back.

"Never get on the good side of a Charizard," Liza chuckled to herself as Charla swept out of the Colosseum, leaving Ash and Charizard out of sight.

Ash sighed as he wiped his face clean again and looked down at his now crispy Sinnoh outfit. I knew I shouldn't have put this on today, he thought.

After a quick wash and change into his old Hoenn outfit, Ash stepped back outside, stretching in the fresh air again.
"I guess Charizard must have been extra-pleased to see you today, Ash," Brock said humourously as he came around the corner of the building. "You don't normally need to change after one his Flamethrowers." Ash just sighed, thinking about his ruined clothes. "Is your team picked yet?" Brock asked.

Ash nodded. "I'm going with Pikachu and Charizard," he said, "as well as Sceptile, Snorlax, and Gallade."

"Who's the last member of your team? Don't tell me that you haven't decided yet!"

Ash just smiled. "Who? That, my friend, will be a mystery until the battle," he laughed. He took a step forwards and walked into something soft. "Oof," he gasped, falling to the ground hard.

"Ash, what's wrong?" Brock asked, concerned.

"I walked into something," he groaned, standing upright.

"But there's nothing there," Brock said, eying the spot in trepidation before looking carefully around both of them.

Could be a Light Screen, or a Reflect I suppose, Ash thought. But they're normally hard, not soft. He took a step towards Brock and crashed again.

"I haven't, but I am friends with one," Ash explained. He reached out his hand and lightly began to move his fingers in a tickling motion. There was a chirping noise that sounded a little like laughter, and suddenly a white and red dragon materialized. Brock's jaw dropped.

"La - Latias?" he whispered in disbelief. "How... how did you..."

"I called Lorenzo and Bianca in Alto Mare," Ash explained as Latias nuzzled up to him, crooning happily. "They went to find Latias, and she was more than happy to come over."

"Good luck, Ash," Brock said as the trainer walked back towards the Colosseum.

"Hey, Brock..." Ash said, pausing a moment.

"Yes?" the breeder replied.

"Thanks for agreeing to stay here as the official referee for the Battle Colosseum. I couldn't have picked a better choice." Brock smiled.

"Thanks for asking if I could be the one to have the job," he said. "Go on, you need to start warming up. I'll check on the egg that Liza gave you while I look over the rules to make sure that Latias is allowed to compete" Ash laughed.

"Race you," he called to Latias, running towards the training ground at the side of the Colosseum. She chirped happily and tore off after him, Pikachu running behind.

Panting hard, Ash passed by the Colosseum. He was almost in the training grounds when Pikachu shot forwards with a Quick Attack. Momentarily stunned, he paused and Latias took that advantage to knock his feet from under him as she followed Pikachu into the grounds.

He picked himself off of the ground, dismayed by what had happened. He entered the training ground and was surprised to see his six choices for the match already standing in line, waiting for him: Snorlax, looking to see if Ash had brought in any food; Sceptile, leaning casually against a tree with a twig in it's mouth; Charizard, eying the strength of the grass-type and wondering if he'd make a good opponent, despite the type-differences; Gallade, blades crossed across his chest as he waited for the training to begin; Latias, hovering off the ground and in the midst of a conversation with Pikachu, who sat on her back.

"Are you ready guys?" Ash asked them. There was an assorted chorus of cries, chirpings, and roars. "This is the biggest match any of us have ever had," he said to them. "I still remember when Cynthia beat all six of Paul's Pokemon, including his Torterra, while only using her Garchomp. This is going to be really tough, but I know that we can do it!" Charizard greeted Ash's statement with a burst of fire from his mouth. Sceptile glanced sideways at the fire-type, eying his strength.

Sceptile and Charizard immediately turned to face each other, the fire-type's tail flame flickering eagerly, the grass-type's mouth relaxed into an easy smile. Snorlax lumbered around the pair to introduce itself to Gallade, who examined the enormous Pokemon with interest. Pikachu tapped Latias on the shoulder and her eyes brightened. She had been afraid that, not knowing any of Ash's Pokemon, they wouldn't want to be around her, or train with her. Pikachu jumped off her back and turned to face her, his red cheeks crackling furiously with electricity.

"Hold up, Pikachu," Ash called, drawing out his PokeDex. "I want to check out Latias's moves first." He scanned Latias, gaining her Dex data before pressing a button on the right to check out what moves she knew.

"Let's see..." he muttered. "Latias, try a Dragonbreath attack on that tree over there," he called. Latias turned to the tree and opened her mouth, forming a green ball that seemed to crackle with power. Charizard, watching carefully out of the corner of his eye snorted disdainfully when she didn't release the attack straight away, almost forgetting to dodge Sceptile's Bullet Seed attack. When Latias judged that she'd stored enough energy she shot the Dragonbreath powerfully. It slammed straight into the tree, burning a hole right through it. Charizard, stunned at the power, stood stock-still and took a Leaf Blade in the shoulder. Stumbling backwards he watched Latias with a new respect in his eyes. By waiting for only a few seconds, she had built up the attack to a power level that could never be achieved by firing straight away, something that he had never thought of.

"That's some power!" Ash exclaimed. "Now, try a Zen Headbutt to knock the tree down; Sceptile, Gallade, when the tree falls slice it apart with your Leaf Blade and Psycho Cut!" Latias lunged at the tree, the top of her head glowing a bright blue and almost seeming to cast a protective sheet of glass over herself. She smashed into the tree and broke through easily; Sceptile and Gallade both leaped forwards, the leaves on Sceptile's arms extended and glowing a bright green, Gallade's blades a shimmering lavender. They both sliced at the tree expertly, and with blinding speed. In almost no time there was a tall pile of firewood standing where the tree had been.

"Excellent!" Ash said happily, failing to notice a large shadow passing over him, although all of his Pokemon noticed it. "You're all really strong," he continued, "you'll be fantastic in the match today!"

"Pigott!" Pikachu said. Ash looked at his friend funnily.

"What did you just say, Pikachu?"

"Pika, chu pikachu," Pikachu said, shaking his head.

"That's funny, I could have sworn that you were talking like a Pidgeotto," he said.

"Er!" Gallade said, pointing one of his blades behind Ash.

"Huh?" he asked, looking extremely confused.

"I think that your Gallade is telling you to look behind you," a familiar voice laughed as she placed her hand on his shoulders. Ash felt his knees grow weak and his face run hot as he turned to look into the laughing sapphire eyes of May.

"How did you get here?" he asked, somehow managing to string together a coherent sentence.

"I caught a lift from one of your old friends," she said, turning to look at the beautiful hawk-like Pokemon behind her. Ash's eyes widened as he took in the sight of the tan body, and the long, colourful head feathers that cascaded down it's back.

"Pidgeot?" he murmured, taking a couple of steps forward.

"Pigeot!" the flying-type responded, flapping it's wings.

"I... I can't believe it," he said softly. "How come you were in the Johto region? How did you know who May was, and where I was?"

"I think I can answer that, Ashy-boy," he heard an old friend say. Ash whirled around to see his old rival Gary approaching, with Professor Oak and his mother, Delia Ketchum, close behind. "You see," Gary said, "after you told Grandad about the storm and about how May wouldn't be able to come and see your battle today, he told us. We figured that it was just too bad that one of your closest friends wouldn't be able to be there when the rest of us would, so we decided to try and think of a way to get May here."

"That's when Gary had a real brainwave," Professor Oak cut in. "He came up with the idea of sending your old Pidgeot to bring her here. While I got in touch with May at the Cianwood Pokemon Centre, Gary went out to see if he could find you Pidgeot. Tracey had told us that he'd seen it early that morning, so we knew that it was in the area."

"Yeah, it didn't take long to find Pidgeot," Gary said. "Once I was able to explain the situation to it, it was more than happy to go to Cianwood. I took it over to your house because I knew that you have a picture of May in there. Once I found the picture and showed it to Pidgeot, it just took off. I don't think I've ever seen a Pokemon move so fast!"

"I didn't know that you had a picture of me, Ash," May said. Ash's stomach jumped a little nervously and he felt his face begin to grow warm again. He quickly turned and looked over at the six Pokemon, noticing that Latias was looking between him and May curiously.

"It's just a picture of you, me, Brock, and Max," he said. "We had it taken when we all met up by accident last year."

"Ohh, that picture," May nodded in comprehension. "I didn't realize that it was so visible - I figured that it would be stuck in a drawer gathering dust or something."

"Eh?" Gary asked. "That wasn't the picture that I was talking about. It was the other one, framed on your de-" Ash's face went beet red. Luckily for him, Latias caused a minor distraction by swooping forwards and knocking Gary's feet out from under him playfully before he could finish the sentence.

While Latias zoomed playfully around Oak, Delia, and Gary, distracting them completely, Ash collapsed to his knees with his head in his hands, groaning silently. How could I have left that picture out in plain sight? he berated himself. That's so embarrassing that Gary just blurted that out... I hope that May wasn't listening too closely.

"Did I hear something about a picture of me, Ash?" he heard May whisper sweetly into his ear. He went scarlet again, failing to see Sceptile, Charizard, and Gallade all giving each other knowing looks as they stood over him.

"Umm, see, the thing is, I, Pikachu, photo-" he lapsed into an incoherent string of letters and syllables, the only words May actually able to understand being "nice frame," and "put away." She grinned, enjoying his discomfort as he babbled on. Finally, she put her hand over his mouth, forcing him to stop talking.

"That's better," she laughed, taking her hand away. "Come on Ash, concentrate. Look, Dawn's running over. I wonder why she's in such a hurry?" Dawn's rush had caught the attention of Professor Oak, Delia, and Gary too. Latias took the opportunity to escape from their praise and fly playfully around May.

"Ash!" Dawn called out breathlessly as soon as she got close. "Cynthia's here! You've got to greet her before the battle starts, but you'd better hurry, the first people in the audience are already finding their seats and, oh Ash, is that a Latias!?" Ash grinned as she came to a skidding halt in front of the Legendary Pokemon, who eyed her quizzically.

"Thanks for telling me about Cynthia, Dawn," he said as Oak, Delia and Gary began to hurry to the Colosseum. "Where is she?"

"Hmm? Oh, Misty and Max took her to your house. I think she's in the Living Room," Dawn said, still staring at Latias with a look of absolute wonder.

"Thanks Dawn. I guess we should go, huh Pikachu?" he asked his friend.

"Pika," Pikachu agreed, jumping onto his shoulder. Ash turned to his Pokemon and quickly returned them all.

"Ash, I'll come with you," May volunteered. Ash stumbled, but caught his footing in time.

"That's okay, May," he said. "You should head into the stands now while there's still time to get good seats. I have some reserved especially for all my friends, and even though I thought you wouldn't be able to come today, I set one aside just in case. Anyways, Latias really seems to like you, so I'll need you to look after her for a little while."

"Alright, Ash," May said, looking a little disappointed. "Good luck today. I'll see you after the match, I guess." She stepped forwards and gave Ash a quick, close hug before turning and heading in the direction of the battlefield, Latias at her side. "Come on Pidgeot," she called, and the flying type took to the air after her, brushing Ash's head lightly with one wing as it passed.

Ash stood there for a moment, still feeling the warmth of May's hug on his body. His cheeks began to glow again.

"Looks like Ash has a girlfriend," Dawn grinned, snapping Ash back to reality. He flushed even deeper.

"I do not," he said defensively. "I just haven't seen her in a while, and I'm really glad that she was able to come today."

"Sure," Dawn taunted as she began to head over to Ash's house. "I guess I'll have to go and apologize to Cynthia then, tell her about how you were too busy saying goodbye to your girlfriend to even say hello to her." She giggled to herself and began to run.

"Hey, wait!" Ash shouted, determined to beat her to Cynthia so that she couldn't spread any tall tales about him.

"Ash," Cynthia said, rising from her seat to shake his hand. "It's good to see you again. Are you ready for our battle?"
"I'm as ready as I'll ever be!" he said. "You'd better watch out though, Cynthia. You didn't get where you are today by luck, but neither did I! If you think that this match will be easy then you'll have to think again!"

"Just what I wanted to hear!" Cynthia said, pounding her fist into her open hand in excitement as she sat down again. "Win or lose today, Ash, I want you to promise me two things."

"Those being?" Ash asked.

"You'll give this battle everything you have!"

"No worries there," Dawn laughed. "What's the second thing?"

"We'll go out for some ice cream afterwards - you, me, and all of your friends."

"I think that'll be okay," Ash said with a grin. Dawn nodded eagerly.

"Great," Cynthia smiled. She stood and walked to the door. "I'll be waiting in the Colosseum, Ash," she said over her shoulder. "Good luck!" With that, she walked out towards the battlefield.

"Are you ready, Pikachu?" Ash asked as Brock entered the room.

"Pika pika!"

"I've checked the rulebook Ash," Brock said quickly before the trainer could run out the room. "There's nothing that says using Latias is against the rules. You'll be able to use her without any problems."

"Thanks, Brock," Ash said, relief evident on his face. "I was a little worried, but I'm glad that you were able to check for me." He began to walk towards the door, Brock at his side, Pikachu on his shoulder, and Dawn close behind.

"I checked the egg too," Brock said. "It's definitely a Charmander egg. I'm not sure how long it will be until it hatches though. That all depends on the trainer who carries it."

"Well, I already have Charizard," Ash said, "so I think that I'll give the egg to someone."

"Who do you plan on giving it to?" Brock asked. For a moment Ash's face flushed pink, but he quickly managed to get it back to his normal colour, hoping that Brock and Pikachu hadn't noticed.

"There's only one person I could give it to," he said quietly in response.

May looked out over the battlefield in awe. "It's enormous," she said. "I've never seen a battlefield this size, or this shape either."
"It was supposed to incorporate portions of each of the four main battlefields used in a regular tournament," Max said beside her. "Grass, Rock, Water, and Ice. The only thing was, they couldn't figure out how to add the Ice part of the field, so they just left it out. They made it this size and shape so that Pokemon would have as much room to manoeuvre as possible. It's one thing using a Caterpie or a Bidoof in a regular-sized battlefield, and another using a Gyarados or a Lapras, who wouldn't have as much room to use their full potential."

"Wow," May whispered.

"Look," Max said, pointing towards the pool. "The pool was put in so that water Pokemon could fight too. I mean, you can use a Blastoise on land, but it's almost impossible to use something like a Lumineon. I think the best parts about the Colosseum is how the fields were melded, and the boundaries. Grass and Rock are always interchanging, so there is no set advantage anywhere on the field."

"Why do you like the boundaries so much?" May asked him.

"They go right up to the walls," she heard a very familiar voice say.

"Dad!" May squealed, turning around. Norman grinned at her, Caroline right next to him.

"We couldn't miss this match," Norman said. "Not after everything Ash has done for us, and you two kids."

"We were so thrilled to get a personal invitation," Caroline beamed. "I really hope Ash wins. Just imagine, he's only one win away from becoming an official Pokemon Master!"

"But as I was saying," Norman said, leaning in to May quickly before Caroline could took the conversation in a different direction, "the boundaries of the battlefield go right up to the walls. That way, a Pokemon can only be declared out-of-bounds if it actually goes into the audience."

"That's a fantastic way to do it," May murmured. "It gives every Pokemon the chance to battle for as long as they can." She frowned as she looked at something that didn't seem quite right. "What are those little black marks scattered on the field?" she asked, realizing what looked wrong. "They're really clustered together in some places."

"I have no idea," Max shrugged. "I never noticed them when I was sparring with Misty earlier." May felt a tap on her shoulder.

"Excuse me," a pleasant voice said, "but is that your friend?" May looked beside her and gasped in shock. The girl next to her, wearing a green shirt, and white shorts and hat was leaning dangerously over the edge of the seat trying to get the attention of the four people selling popcorn, drinks, and other snacks who were currently in the section below them - a good ten-foot drop. May seized her and dragged her back into her seat. The girl looked at May with a hurt expression in her eyes.

"Don't do that," May whispered furiously. "You almost fell! What would have happened if you'd done that?"

The girl began flapping her arms soundlessly, with a truly innocent smile on her face.

"You can't do that yet!" May told her. "Remember our plan - you have to stay hidden until Ash calls you. Then you can transform, but not now. It would cause too much mayhem."

Realization crossed the girl's face, and she nodded soundlessly, flattening herself into her seat, but looking almost sulky. May sighed in relief that she wasn't in danger anymore.

"Thanks," she said, turning to the person behind her. Her jaw dropped. "Anabel?" she asked. "What are you doing here, you and -" her eyes ran along the people next to her. "Are all of the Frontier Brains here?" she asked, her eyes taking in Noland, Brandon, and Lucy.

"Most of them," Anabel said, her lavender hair fluttering slightly in the breeze. "Greta is on the other side of the reserved section with Tucker. Spenser is really old now, and he couldn't make the journey. He retired a couple of years ago meaning that there are still seven Frontier Brains, including Ash." May nodded in understanding, wondering briefly how old Spenser really was.

A sudden roar shook the Colosseum. Both scoreboards, one on each side of the battlefield had just lit up. May looked down at the field and saw Brock begin to walk towards the pool in the centre of the field, and Dawn approaching the same spot from the other side.

They met in the centre of the field and Brock raised his arms for silence. "This is a six-on-six match between the Champion Cynthia -" huge roars flooded across the Colosseum again, and the scoreboard lit up to display CYNTHIA - CELESTIC TOWN in green - "and the Challenger, Ash!" More screams, and the second-half of the scoreboard lit up to read ASH - PALLET TOWN in red. Brock gestured for silence again.

"I am the referee for this event. Our commentator today is Dawn!" The crowd roared again as Dawn waved her hands in acknowledgement, a big smile on her face. "There is no time limit for this match," Brock continued. "Both the champion and the challenger may substitute Pokemon at any time." Dawn took over.

"Both Cynthia and Ash are now approaching the Colosseum," she called out. "Before they get here, the battlefield will make it's final transformation!" She and Brock hurried off the pitch as several mechanical noises filled the air.

Long, curving sections of the battlefield fell below the ground, only to have water from the self-replenishing pool fill the gaps. May gasped. "This really give Water Pokemon a real chance to fight," she said to herself. Then her eyes widened as she saw what all of the black marks were for. They too had dropped into the ground, and now trees of all shapes and sizes were springing up in random locations.

"That must have taken a lot of planning to be able to fit trees into the battlefield, and still enable everyone to see the battle at all times," she heard Norman say.

"It's... fantastic," May murmured, unable to believe the look of the battlefield. Leading from the pool, rivers now ran through the Colosseum. Trees were grouped close together in clusters, or just standing alone as oddballs.

The noise reached levels that made May wince. A gigantic television screen next to each scoreboard had turned on. It was in a split-screen, and two shadowy figures were emerging from the brilliant lights behind them.

"Looks like Ash has a girlfriend," Dawn grinned, snapping Ash back to reality. He flushed even deeper.

"I do not," he said defensively. "I just haven't seen her in a while, and I'm really glad that she was able to come today."

"Sure," Dawn taunted as she began to head over to Ash's house. "I guess I'll have to go and apologize to Cynthia then, tell her about how you were too busy saying goodbye to your girlfriend to even say hello to her." She giggled to herself and began to run.

^^ Lol

"Thanks," she said, turning to the person behind her. Her jaw dropped. "Anabel?" she asked. "What are you doing here, you and -" her eyes ran along the people next to her. "Are all of the Frontier Brains here?" she asked, her eyes taking in Noland, Brandon, and Lucy.

Some Abilityshipping maybe? Could happen.

Great chapters and good plot. I can see where its going. But it seems like it's only gonna last a short while. Imo of course.

Keep up the good work, and fyi, don't double post. Even in your own thread.

The Colosseum erupted in cheering as Ash and Cynthia stepped onto the battlefield from opposing ends of the pitch. It was so loud that May was forced to cover her ears. She glanced sideways and give an inaudible shriek of terror. The girl who sat mutely beside her had jumped up when Ash walked into view and waved her arms wildly at him, once again nearly overbalancing. May groaned and dragged her back from the edge.

Cynthia stood quietly, a tight smile on her face as she glanced quickly around the battlefield, noting the positions of the rivers, rocks, and trees. Ash was standing opposite her, watching his opponent as she carefully observed the battlefield. A shudder of joy ran through his chest. This is it, he thought. If I win this battle, I will be a Pokemon Master!

Two tall platforms now began to raise themselves out of the ground, both coloured jet-black. With Pikachu on his shoulder, Ash began to climb up the platform. As he reached the top and looked out over the battlefield, the audience quieted down a little.

"We will now determine which trainer shall choose their first Pokemon," Dawn's voice broke out, cutting through the little noise that remained. A large wheel with an alternating green-and-red pattern appeared in between the two still photos of Cynthia and Ash on the scoreboard. It began to glow and spin wildly for a moment before slowing down, and finally stopping on a red segment. Up in the stands, May, Max, Misty, Gary, and the rest of Ash's supporters groaned.

"And Ash Ketchum will make the first choice!" Dawn announced. Ash smiled at Cynthia and then looked up at the audience. It was inadvertent, but his gaze met May's. Their eyes locked for a moment, and then with an almost invisible pink tinge on his face, he tore his gaze away. He noted Pidgeot perching on top of the Colosseum before returning his eyes to the battlefield. With a grin, he drew out a Poke Ball and enlarged it with a click.

"Snorlax, I choose you!" he shouted. With a blinding flash of red light, the gigantic Pokemon appeared amongst the rocks. Ash caught his Poke Ball and glanced across at Cynthia, wondering what Pokemon she would pick.

"Gastrodon! To me!" Cynthia called, and in another flash of red light a pink and brown sea slug appeared on a patch of grass.

"Ash has chosen his Snorlax, caught in the Orange Islands, and Cynthia will be starting with her West-Sinnoh Gastrodon!" Dawn informed the crowd.

"Snorlax, cut it off and use Mega Punch!" Ash countered. Gastrodon began to move, rather sluggishly at first but picking up speed as it's six flippers began to move more quickly. Snorlax charged in, it's hand glowing a brilliant white as it formed into a fist.

Ash watched carefully as Snorlax moved around a rock, the large Pokemon running as fast as it could. It would be close, but it looked as if Snorlax would reach Gastrodon before it could jump into the water. Snorlax moved closer, and began to swing it's fist at the giant sea slug.

"Gastrodon, Harden!" Cynthia commanded at the last possible moment. A flash ran over Gastrodon's body, and Snorlax's Mega Punch bounced off harmlessly.

"Snor..." the Pokemon cried in surprise.

"Now use Mud Bomb!" Cynthia shouted. At point-blank range, her Gastrodon fired several blobs of earth which exploded on impact with Snorlax's face, driving it back into the rocks with a force that shattered several of them.

"Snorlax, are you okay?" Ash shouted.

"Lax..." it responded, pawing at it's eyes to try and remove the dirt.

"Gastrodon, into the water and use Water Pulse!" Cynthia commanded, believing herself to now be in charge of this round. Gastrodon slipped easily into the pool at the centre of the field and immediately launched a devastating ball of water at Snorlax.
"Snorlax, run right at it and use Headbutt!" Ash shouted. The crowd gasped in disbelief as Snorlax charged straight for the attack. There was a devastating sound of imploding water and spray splashed in all directions. Ash grinned as the water fell to the ground and revealed Snorlax still running straight towards the pool. Cynthia gaped in disbelief.

"Use Ice Punch!" Ash yelled, and a missive fist of ice crashed down onto the surface of the water. The sheet of water froze and spread across the pool and rivers in the Colosseum.

"Todon," the Gastrodon managed to blurt out before the sheet of ice enveloped it as well, freezing it immobile in the pond.

"What an incredible strategy!" Dawn said in excitement. "Ash used Gastrodon's own Water Pulse to clear Snorlax's vision, and then had Snorlax use Ice Punch to freeze the pool and immobilize Gastrodon!"

"Gastrodon, return," Cynthia said quietly, recalling the frozen Pokemon. "You did a good job wearing down Snorlax, Gastrodon. I can still use you later. Now, Spiritomb! To me!" she called, sending out her second Pokemon. A large purple ghost-type emerged, covered in green circular markings.

"I don't get it," Max muttered. "Ominous Wind is a ghost-type attack, and has no effect on normal types. I don't understand why Cynthia would use it, unless..." He gasped and sat bolt upright.
"What's wrong?" May asked.

"Ominous Wind won't do any damage to Snorlax, but it'll make Spiritomb stronger!" Max told her urgently. It was May's turn to gasp.

"Snorlax, use a Crunch attack," Ash shouted at his Pokemon. Snorlax began to move towards Spiritomb, mouth open and teeth gleaming purple.
"Spiritomb, Faint Attack," Cynthia retaliated calmly. The ghost type vanished, causing Snorlax to stop and look to see where it had gone. It reappeared directly behind the normal-type and rammed itself into the small of Snorlax's back. The normal-type stumbled onto it's belly, and rolled over.

"Snorlax, it's time to Rest," Ash said, seeing how little energy it had left.

"Curse, Spiritomb," Cynthia commanded. A look of pain crossed the ghost-type's face as it shrouded itself in a grey mist which extended over to Snorlax.

"Spir..." it hissed in agony, but Snorlax was also beginning to moan in pain as it's recovered health began to fade away. Ash gritted his teeth in frustration. While Snorlax was asleep, he couldn't attack! Could he? It all suddenly clicked in Ash's mind.

"Snorlax, use Sleep Talk!" Ash shouted. Snorlax gave a large yawn, and suddenly the Spiritomb drifted to the ground, eyes closed in it's sleep.

"Spiritomb is unable to battle!" Brock announced, raising his green flag to symbolize Cynthia's loss. The picture of Spiritomb on the scoreboard faded, leaving only an outline of the Pokemon.

"Unbelievable!" Dawn shouted out. "Ash was able to command Snorlax to use a Sleep Talk - a difficult move to pull off successfully - which transformed into a Yawn attack, and then an Ice Punch! For those who don't know, Sleep Talk is a little like Assist in that any move used is completely random. It only works if the Pokemon using it is asleep though."

Cynthia recalled her Spiritomb. "Good job, Spiritomb," she said quietly. "I'm sorry that I messed up when I chose your attacks. But that doesn't matter, because my next choice will be all I need! Milotic, to me!"

"Miko!" the beautiful serpent-like water-type sang out as it emerged onto one of the frozen rivers.

"Snorlax, we can do this!" Ash told his Pokemon. "All we need is one good Ice Punch! Snorlax?" The grey mist suddenly tightened over the normal-type and then vanished, leaving it immobile on the ground.

"Snorlax is unable to battle!" Brock ruled, raising his red flag.

"And it looks like Spiritomb's Curse finally took it's toll on Snorlax," Dawn told the crowd. "Let's see what Ash's second choice will be."

"Good job, Snorlax," Ash said with a smile as he recalled it. "You did some damage to Gastrodon, and you took out her Spiritomb. Now, I choose you! Sceptile!"

"Tile!" the grass-type said as it emerged, a twig in it's mouth.

"I hope you don't think that a type advantage will help you win" Cynthia smirked. "I have defences for when I'm at a disadvantage."

"Milotic, to the pool!" Cynthia commanded. Awkwardly at first, her Milotic began to slither towards the pool. She gained speed as she moved along the slick surface, just barely avoiding the Bullet Seed.

"Keep it up, Sceptile," Ash said. "Fire your Bullet Seed ahead of Milotic, it won't be able to dodge!"

"Tile," Sceptile responded, and shot another burst of seeds from it's mouth. The attack landed directly in the path of Milotic, the blast knocking her onto dry land.

"Now use Leaf Blade!"

Cynthia glared as she looked down onto the battlefield. Ash was good, much better than she had expected. No matter what she tried, he always seemed to be able to outmanoeuvre her. Maybe it's the battlefield, she thought. He's bound to know it reasonably well, after all, it is his. But if that were true then no trainer would ever beat a Gym Leader. Suddenly, she saw an opening.

"Milotic," she called, "dive into the water!" At the last possible moment, her Milotic dived into a hole in the ice created by Sceptile's Bullet Seed. The Leaf Blade barely missed. "Now use Ice Beam!" she shouted.

Milotic's head burst back out of the water. She fired an Ice Beam at point-blank range. It smashed into Sceptile, and the grass-type was sent flying.

"Milotic, swim to the centre of the pool and use Aqua Ring, followed by Aqua Tail!" Cynthia shouted.

"Miko," Milotic acknowledged, and then dived under the water again. Her sinuous shape was visible beneath the ice as she made her way to the pool in the centre of the field.

"Sceptile, I know you've taken a lot of damage, but that won't stop us! Solarbeam!" Ash told his Pokemon. The yellow orbs on Sceptile's back began to slowly glow yellow as they absorbed the sunlight.

With a large cracking noise, the ice in the pool was blown skywards by a tornado of revolving water - Aqua Ring. As the shattered ice dropped back down, Milotic's tail glowed a deep blue.

"Your Sceptile's about to be knocked out, Ash," Cynthia smirked. "It can't possibly overcome a bombardment of ice chunks, and Milotic's recovering health. One of the perks of Aqua Ring, I have to say."

Ash gritted his teeth as the Aqua Tail lashed out and connected with the falling ice, sending it soaring at high-speed towards Sceptile. Sceptile watched, grimacing, as the ice approached. Then, it felt the orbs stop taking in energy.

"Tile!" Sceptile shrieked, and the Solarbeam launched. A powerful, pure-white beam shot from Sceptile's mouth. It destroyed the approaching ice chunks, smashed through the Aqua Ring, and made a direct hit with Milotic.

"Look at that power!" Dawn gasped. "That Solarbeam broke through two attacks and scored massive damage against Milotic!"

"Quick Attack!" Ash shouted.

"Giga Impact!" Cynthia commanded.

Sceptile shot forwards at an incredible speed, and Milotic charged out of the water, he head covered in a silver aura as she writhed in midair towards her opponent.

"Leaf Blade!" Ash shouted.

No Leaf Blade can stop Milotic's Giga Impact, Cynthia thought. Her eyes widened. At the last possible moment Sceptile used the speed of the Quick Attack to dodge Milotic's attack, spin around in midair, and then lash out with a devastating Leaf Blade that sent Milotic crashing to the ground.

"Milotic!" Cynthia cried out.

"Finish it with Frenzy Plant!" Ash shouted as Sceptile landed.

"Sceeep TILE!" Sceptile roared, eyes glowing green. Enormous spiny roots shot out of the ground and smashed into Milotic, sending her spinning through the air to crash among one of the rock portions of the battlefield.

"Milotic is unable to battle!" Brock announced.

"What a move!" Dawn cheered. "That Frenzy Plant, the most powerful grass attack of all really shook Milotic up! But Sceptile's definitely looking tired now. We'll have to see how that affects it in the next battle."

With a huge, pent-up sigh of relief, May relaxed into her chair. She wiped her forehead. Each of Cynthia's Pokemon was more powerful than the last. Only two of hers had been knocked out - although some serious damage had been done to her Gastrodon - but Ash's Snorlax was also out, and Sceptile looked like it was on the point of collapsing.
"You'll just have to trust in your Pokemon, Ash," she murmured to herself. "I hope you won't be too disappointed if you lose though." The girl next to her tugged her arm. May looked over and saw a look of worry on her face.

"Don't worry," she reassured the girl. "I know that Ash can win. I just hope that his strategy will work out, that's all. I believe he can do it - and that you can too." The girl smiled and looked back towards the battlefield.

"Good job, Milotic," Cynthia said, recalling her Pokemon. "I won't let you down next time. Now, to me! Roserade!"
"Rosé," her Roserade announced as it stepped daintily forwards to face the exhausted Sceptile.

"Sceptile, return!" Ash called. "Great job, Sceptile. That Ice Beam took a lot out of you though, and you should rest for later on. Now, Charizard! I choose you!"

In the familiar burst of red light, Charizard emerged. It looked and saw the Roserade standing opposite. Charizard's eyes narrowed. The Roserade didn't look very tough, but Charizard could sense that it was a powerful combatant.

"Are you ready, Charizard?" Ash asked. The fire-type roared. "Into the air!" he shouted. Sweeping it's wings in huge bursts of power, Charizard began to ascend into the sky.

"Rosé," the grass-type acknowledged as it shots streams of purple darts towards the flying Charizard.

"Counter with Flamethrower!" Ash called.

Charizard launched a full breath of fiery flames from it's mouth just in time. The Poison Sting collided with the Flamethrower, but shot straight through, the Flamethrower only slowing the attack down. Charizard was forced to roll in midair to avoid the attack. The slightly slower Roserade wasn't quite as lucky; it was forced to jump backwards to avoid the Flamethrower, but a few streams of the cut-up fire scored a hit on her arm.

"Secret Power!" Cynthia retaliated. Roserade held it's two arms together and shot out a gleaming white beam. It smashed into Charizard's wing, sending the Pokemon spinning out of control. With a roar of surprise and pain, Charizard barrelled deep into the ground, sending a gigantic cloud of dust into the air that hid the Pokemon from sight.

May and Max both leapt up from their seats in horror. "Charizard!" they yelled in perfect timing with Ash.
"That isn't good," Norman said in a low voice. "Charizard had the momentum of the dive behind it, and the spinning only increased the power. That had to have done a lot of damage."

"It's not over just yet," Anabel said confidently.

"How can you say that?" Max asked. "Charizard was just smashed into the ground!" Anabel winked at him.

"When you've been battling for as long as Ash and Charizard have, you're bound to have a few tricks up your sleeve," she said. "I don't know if you saw it, but I sure did."

"Roserade," Cynthia said, confident that the victory was hers. "Use Leaf Storm!" A cloud of razor-sharp leaves shot towards the place were Charizard had fallen. All of Ash's supporters watched in horror, Misty and May both closing their eyes to avoid the sight.
"Flare Blitz!" Ash roared.

A red glow emanated from the huge dust cloud, and Charizard burst into view, wreathed in flames, only his outline visible in a manner similar to when a Pokemon used Volt Tackle. His eyes tinged red, Charizard gave a roar that echoed around the Colosseum and the he launched into a high-powered flight. The Leaf Storm slammed into the high-temperature flames, but not a single leaf touched it's target. Like a sizzling bullet, he struck Roserade dead on. The grass-type smashed through several boulders before coming to rest against the boundary wall.

"Roserade!" Cynthia screamed.

"Roserade is unable to battle!" Brock ruled. "The victor of this round is Charizard!"

"And Ash knocks out his third opponent!" Dawn shouted into the microphone. "Since Cynthia has lost three of her Pokemon, we'll take a ten-minute break to allow her to regroup. We'll see you all back here in a couple of minutes!"

"How'd you do it, Ash?" Misty demanded. She, May, Max, Noland, Anabel, Professor Oak, Delia, Gary, and the silent girl had all rushed down to his training room as soon as the ten-minute break had been announced.
"How'd I do what?" he asked innocently.

"How did Charizard not faint when it crashed into the ground like that? I've never seen a Pokemon take damage like that and manage to keep on battling, let alone use a Flare Blitz which hurts it even more!"

Ash shrugged. "I wasn't worried about Flare Blitz because of the training Charizard's done. When I first called Liza and told her I'd need Charizard to battle Cynthia, she told me how Charizard had recently learned that move. I asked her if she could get Charizard to use that attack as often as possible so that the recoil effect wouldn't damage it as much. It's just a fire-type version of Take Down and Volt Tackle, and Pikachu isn't affected by recoil anymore so I figured that with practice it would be the same for Charizard."

"And the crash?" Max asked. Ash smiled, his eyes lighting up in memory. May felt her stomach give a sudden lurch, and looked down in worry. She couldn't possibly be hungry, could she?

"When I fought in the Johto League," Ash said, "I eventually lost against a trainer called Harrison. Charizard used a Seismic Toss on his Blaziken. It would have knocked Blaziken out too, if it hadn't used a Flamethrower to soften it's landing and lessen the impact." Anabel smiled; she had been right.

"Charizard used a Flamethrower to soften his landing just before he hit, right?" she asked. "And the spinning motion meant that more of the ground was hit, and with more power so that it would be as soft as possible."

Ash nodded. "That's right," he said. Then he laughed. May felt the uncomfortable lurch again. "After all of these years of training, me and my Pokemon know each other through and through. We barely even need to communicate with words anymore. Just like someone else I know," he said with a smile at Anabel. At once, the lurching in May's stomach transferred to her heart. She grabbed at it a little unsteadily, hoping nobody else would notice her sudden movement. What was wrong with her?

"The ten minute break is up!" they suddenly heard Dawn say over the loudspeaker. "Audience - back to your seats! Champion Cynthia and Challenger Ash, you are requested to return to the battlefield!"

Ash stood up and stretched. "I'm sure feeling good about this," he said. "Three of Cynthia's Pokemon are down, and I still have five of my six left. I'll see you guys after the match!" May watched as Ash turned and walked up towards the Colosseum, while everyone else filed past her to reach the audience section again. She suddenly felt someone clutch her hand, and turned to see the silent girl trying to motion in the direction that everyone else had gone.

"Thanks," she sighed, and began to walk slowly back to her seat, the girl following behind with a very puzzled look on her face. No sooner had she sat down then she felt Anabel tapping her on the back.

"Are you alright, May?" she asked. "You're looking a little sad."

"I'm fine," she sighed. Anabel looked at her and gave a fleeting smile.

"I'm sure that I'm not the only one who noticed that Ash was wearing half a ribbon around his neck," she said to May. Although May's expression didn't change, her lurching heart suddenly seemed to feel lighter.

"Trainers, it's time to choose your next Pokemon!" Dawn announced.
"Gastrodon, to me!" Cynthia called, and her Pokemon appeared for the second time. Ash smiled.

"Latias, I choose you!" he shouted out, accompanied by a gasp of surprise that arose from nearly every throat in the Colosseum. The silent girl next to May suddenly shimmered in a silver light. Moments later, Latias had appeared. She looked over to May.

"Do your best," May whispered, giving the legendary Pokemon a thumbs-up. Latias chirped and floated down to stand in front of Ash.

"A Latias, eh?" Cynthia said to herself. "I never even considered that he could be using a legendary!" She berated herself quietly for a few more seconds before looking back out over the battlefield. "Gastrodon, use Rain Dance!" she commanded.

Clouds gathered, and slowly rain began to fall. Cynthia smiled. With the Rain Dance in effect, Gastrodon could move about much more easily on land. The rain stopped.

"Gastrodon, what's wrong?" she called out in worry. Her Pokemon could only look about itself in a bewildered manner. "Try Rain Dance again!" she ordered. Again her Gastrodon used the attack, but the rain stopped after only a few seconds.

Ash looked around confused. The rain clouds were still there, but no rain was falling. It doesn't make sense, he thought. What could stop a Rain Dance? He frowned as he looked across at Cynthia, unwilling to attack while her Pokemon's abilities were prevented from being used. Latias suddenly chirped anxiously, pointing her arms towards the sky that lay beyond Cynthia, beyond the Colosseum.

One small patch of sky was completely clear; Ash could the sun sparkling through. It was weaving towards the Colosseum erratically. He rubbed his eyes, but the moving patch of sunlight continued to soar through the clouds in a zigzag pattern. He heard a roar off in the distance and went cold at the sound of it. The crowd had also heard and began to whisper in confusion as they looked around themselves for the source.

A girl suddenly screamed, pointing up at the moving patch of sunlight. As one, the crowd followed her gaze. Cynthia felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up as she slowly turned around.

Flying at a very low altitude, a Rayquaza appeared over the edge of the Colosseum, an unusual glint in it's eyes. The crowd went numb at the sight of the rare and powerful Pokemon. The Rayquaza looked around at the spectacle in front of it with a confused expression. It took in the huge number of people gathered, the battlefield, and the two Pokemon who stood on it.

With a demonic roar of anger the Rayquaza blasted a Hyper Beam into the Colosseum.

The silence was complete. The entire Colosseum stared completely awestruck at the legendary Rayquaza that had suddenly appeared. It stared down at them, a confused look on it's face, it's eyes glinting unusually. It gave a small, almost imperceptible shudder noticed by only a few people. Then, with a roar of rage, it reared back and fired a devastating Hyper Beam into the Colosseum.

The attack tore across the field, scoring a deep gouge. The crowd descended into chaos, every human trying to be the first to leave the Colosseum in their panic. The Rayquaza dove into the open-aired building and swooped down low over the crowd, instilling even more fear into them. Only Ash's supporters had remained where they were, standing in stunned disbelief as the Rayquaza released another unprovoked attack, this time knocking down several of the trees on the battlefield.

Anabel gave a scream of fear as a man in the row behind her stumbled and slammed into her, off-balance. She toppled over and crashed into May, sending both of them over the edge of the barrier and plummeting to the field below. Like lightning, Brandon and Lucy both lunged forwards and seized the two girls, pulling them up to safety.

"Anabel, are you okay?" Brandon asked in concern. She stared up at him, eyes glazed for a moment. She shook her head, fighting back the fear, and gave a silent nod.

"May?" Lucy asked, saying as little as ever.

"I'm okay too," May gasped, her hand over her pounding chest. "Thanks." Lucy nodded and turned to Brandon. He eyed her with a grim smile on his face and withdrew three Poke Balls.

The Rayquaza turned and floated over the centre of the battlefield. It shuddered again and blindly shot down a third Hyper Beam. Latias gave out a scream of fright as it headed directly towards her.

"Latias!" Ash screamed. A huge cloud of dust and wind swarmed past him from the resulting explosion. Pikachu was forced to hold on to Ash's jacket as tightly as it could, and Ash felt himself sliding backwards. A dull light began to shine through the dust as it cleared and the wind died down. Ash squinted, rubbing his eyes to free them from the grit. He suddenly realized that Latias had protected herself by using Safeguard, although the impact from the Hyper Beam had still managed to force her backwards.

"Pikachu," Ash said, turning to face his friend who had only just hauled himself back onto Ash's shoulder. "Get to the Pokemon field where we trained today. The rest of my Pokemon are in there. I need all of them, even the thirty Tauros, to get in here now."

"Pika," Pikachu rejected the idea, red cheeks sizzling with energy as he glared up at the Rayquaza who was once again flying low over the crowd, roaring angrily. Ash winced as the Rayquaza's tail caught one woman, sending her flying through the air, screaming in terror.

"Just do it!" Ash yelled. "I need all of them to help me hold off Rayquaza so that everyone can escape. You can help me when you get back, but you're the only Pokemon I have on me right now who is can get there and back without being seen!"

Pikachu looked up at his trainer for a moment. Ash's expression gave no room for argument. Pikachu nodded and sprang off of Ash's shoulder, racing for the tunnel which would lead him out of the Colosseum and towards the training field.

Ash glared up at the Rayquaza. "Rayquaza, I challenge you!" he shouted into the sky. As the Rayquaza turned around to look for this new shout, Ash saw something which made his stomach clench. On the left arm of the Rayquaza was a horrible burn which looked as if it had been made very recently.

"Gallade! Charizard! Sceptile! I choose you!" he shouted, throwing three Poke Balls into the air. On que, the three of them burst out of their Poke Balls to land alongside Latias, Sceptile still breathing a little heavily. The Rayquaza glared down at them all, rage and pain in his eyes, along with something else, something that Ash couldn't identify.

Behind the Rayquaza, Ash saw two more flashes of red light and realized that Cynthia had sent out her two remaining Pokemon to battle as well. The Rayquaza swooped closer down to Ash and his Pokemon, then wheeled and climbed quickly. It was barely more than dot in the sky when Hyper Beams began to fall to the ground like rain. Several more gouges were torn into the battlefield; holes were blown through the Colloseum's walls. The faint, sickly smell of smoke reached Ash's nostrils, and with a mixture of sadness and horror, he realized that his Colosseum was burning.

He climbed down off of the platform and walked onto the battlefield. He tapped Charizard on the back and motioned to him. Charizard gave a nod and Ash climbed onto his back. "Into the air, Charizard!" he shouted, and with sweeping strokes of his wings, the fire-type lifted off of the ground. Ash fished out his Poke Dex and flipped it over the Rayquaza, which was still hovering high in the sky over the Colosseum - he knew that it was a legendary Pokemon, but that was all he knew.

Frowning, he manipulated the Poke Dex to see what kind of attacks would be best against Rayquaza. Fantastic, he thought. Rayquaza's only weak against Dragon and Ice. I guess that means that Charizard and Latias are going to have to use their Dragonbreath's, and that Sceptile won't be able to do much damage.

"Charizard, use Flamethrower; Gallade, Psychic!" he rapped out. Charizard's Flamethrower collided with the Hyper Beam. Gallade quickly used his Psychic to strengthen the fire-attack long enough to cause a harmless explosion in midair.

"Then I'm battling too," Brock said, grabbing one of his Poke Balls, face grim. Ash leaned over Charizard's back and caught his arm.

"No," he said, "you get out of here; Dawn too. All those people who were in the audience must be scared out of their minds. I need you two to try and calm them down so that there aren't any accidents."

"Lucario, Force Palm!" they heard Cynthia shout faintly from the other side of the battlefield, distracting the Rayquaza for the moment.

"But you can't battle by yourself!" Brock shouted.

"I'm not battling!" Ash shouted right back, his nerves fraying to the breaking point. "I'm just holding it off until everyone gets to safety! Pikachu's gone to get my other Pokemon. We can hold Rayquaza off with Cynthia attacking from the other side. I need you and Dawn away from here." Brock gazed into his friend's eyes for a moment. They were tight with fear, but Brock knew that Ash would stay until he knew for sure that everyone had. He nodded.

"Come on, Dawn," he said.

"Are you mad?" Dawn screamed at him. "We can't leave him here alone!"

"He's not alone!" Brock snapped back. "He's got all of his Pokemon, and Cynthia to back him up. We can't help him. What we need to do is get everyone to safety."

"Ash!" May shouted, running up to the three of them, the other six Frontier Brains, Max, Misty, and Gary close behind.

"Get away, May," Ash said, not looking at her.

"Wh-what?" May asked as she came to a dead halt, not believing what she had just heard.

"I said get away. You need to get to safety. I can't stall Rayquaza if I know that you, or any of my friends are in danger."

"I'm not going anywhere," May snapped at him, hands on her hips. "I'm not leaving one of my best friends to battle a legendary Pokemon by himself!" Ash swore and looked around at the sky which was beginning to darken with smoke, not answering her. It only took him a moment to find what he was looking for.

"Pidgeot!" he shouted. The hawk-like Pokemon somehow managed to hear him over the noise of Rayquaza battling Cynthia's Lucario and Garchomp simultaneously. It dove down like a bullet. Ash tossed up a Poke Ball, and Pidgeot immediately understood. It flew directly for the Poke Ball, capturing itself. The Poke Ball dropped back to Earth and Ash caught it. He immediately sent his old friend back out in a beam of red light.

"Pidgeot, take May back to Pallet Town," he said, not looking at her. May gasped, and Ash's chest suddenly felt as if it was caught in a vice. "Take her to the lab... make sure she's safe... go." His voice broke.

"Pigeo," the flying-type acknowledged. It swooped down towards May and grasped her arms delicately in it's talons.

"Wha- Ash, no! Don't do this!" May screamed. "Don't do this to me!"

"GO!" Ash shouted to Pidgeot. In a trice, the bird Pokemon accelerated and was gone.

"Pika!" he heard Pikachu calling through the smoke.

"Over here!" he called back, turning towards the sound. In a moment, all of his Pokemon were crowding below him.

"Tauros, I want all of you to take one person here and take them back to Pallet Town! Try and find Professor Oak and Mom on the way out."

"Ash, what are you doing?" Misty asked quietly. He ignored her.

"Corphish, Muk, Sceptile, Swellow, Noctowl, Bayleef, Heracross, Ambipom, Staraptor, Torkoal, Donphan, Grotle; all of you are going with them." They all gave various shouts of surprise.

"We're not going without you!" Max shouted up at him.

"Yes, you are!" Ash snapped back, tired of this arguing now. Max opened his mouth again, but Brock clamped his hand over it and dragged him onto the nearest Tauros, before climbing onto one himself. Dawn looked around the group nervously. She shrugged and climbed onto another, followed by Misty.

"Tauros, go!" Ash shouted. Slowly, twenty-three of the herd began to canter towards the exit. He looked down at the Pokemon he had told to go with them; not a one had moved a muscle. "Don't you understand?" he asked. "I need all of you to protect them in case Rayquaza gives chase, and to make sure that they're all okay when they get back to Pallet!"

Sceptile looked up at his trainer. He hated what he knew he had to do, but he did it nonetheless. He followed his trainer's orders, trailing the Tauros. The other Pokemon looked around unsure, but the respect that Sceptile commanded in all of them forced them to move. Slowly, sadly, and against everything in their hearts, each and every one of the Pokemon that Ash had ordered to move followed Sceptile's lead.

Soon, only Ash, Gary, seven Tauros, the Frontier Brains, and the rest of Ash's Pokemon were left. Ash looked back over towards Cynthia. It was difficult to tell through the smoke, but it looked as if she was losing - badly.

"You should have gone with everyone else," Ash responded. Gary gave a snort.

"Every time you win a championship, I bring you back to earth by beating you," Gary said. "I figure that you could use some of that strength now." Ash thought about arguing the point, but gave in. He was glad to have Gary's support.

"We're Frontier Brains too," Brandon said, moving to stand at Tucker's side. "We never leave one of our own behind. Besides, if you're battling a legendary you may need one or two on your side." At this, Ash smiled.

"Thank you," he whispered.

"Garchomp!" they heard Cynthia scream.

"Looks like it's time for the main event, oish!" Greta remarked as the Rayquaza turned to face them all. Ash quickly turned to his remaining water-types.

"Kingler, Totodile, I need both of you to try and put out the fires. Use your Water Guns to do it."

"To-to-to-to-to-to-to-da!" Totodile grinned toothily, dancing from foot-to-foot. It raced off for the closest fire, Kingler following close behind.

With a roar of surprise at the sudden number of Pokemon facing it, the Rayquaza hovered uncertainly. It shuddered, and for the third-time Ash caught sight of the movement. Then, moving into a speedy dive, the Rayquaza shot downwards, releasing a powerful Dragon Pulse towards the eight trainers that stood against it.

May struggled as hard as she could against Pidgeot's grip. "Let me down, Pidgeot!" she shouted.

"Pigeot," the bird Pokemon refused, shaking it's beautiful head from side to side.

"You have to take me back!" she pleaded. "I can't leave all of my friends behind!" In response, Pidgeot wheeled and began to fly back towards the Colosseum. May sighed with relief - Pidgeot was taking her back. Below, heading in the direction of Pallet, she suddenly saw a crowd of Tauros and an assorted mix of other Pokemon. She could see Max, Misty, Brock, Dawn, Delia, Professor Oak, Norman, Caroline, and three people she didn't know clinging tightly to the Tauros that they were riding on. She sighed again, this time with frustration. Pidgeot turned again, and headed back to Pallet Town, far outstripping the slower Tauros.

"Why did you do it, Ash?" she whispered to herself. "Why did you have to send everyone to Pallet, and stay behind?" She looked down at the half-ribbon she usually wore as a necklace under her shirt. A confusing jumble of emotions began to collect in her mind. Deep within, she realized that Ash had forced them all away because he cared about them. She knew that he wouldn't be able to battle Rayquaza for long if he was distracted by worry.

"Please be okay, Ash," she whispered. "I promise I won't be mad if you just come home safe."

Pidgeot stopped suddenly in mid-air. May gave a little shriek as she felt herself swing forwards in the air, but Pidgeot held her safely.

"What was that for?" she shouted up angrily.

"Pigeo..." Pidgeot responded, sounding almost in shock. May followed Pidgeot's gaze and gasped.

Cynthia watched bitterly as the Rayquaza turned to face the seven Frontier Brains and the young Professor, grinding her fist into her palm in anger at her helplessness. . All of her Pokemon were out of the fight, and there was nothing more that she could do. She had bought Ash the time he needed to make sure that everyone got away safely. Now, it was time for her to leave, too.

Ash turned to his remaining seven Tauros. "Head back to Pallet Town," he told them. "Rey and her parents may have been in the crowd today, and they might need a ride back." As the Tauros stampeded off, Ash clutched at the half-ribbon he wore as a pendant. I hope you understand why I had to force you to go, he thought quietly. He felt his emotions begin to well up again, and was barely able to force them down; he needed to focus on the battle. The Rayquaza roared, and Ash looked up to see a massive Dragon Pulse roar down to meet them.

"Charizard, Cyndaquil, Flamethrower!" Ash shouted.

"Arcanine, use your Fire Blast!" Tucker roared out. Charizard and Cyndaquil both shot forth a long stream of fire; Arcanine's star-shaped Fire Blast wrapped around them and the three melded attacks shattered burst apart the Rayquaza's powerful Dragon Pulse. "Excellent!" Tucker shouted. "Now Swampert, go after Totodile and Kingler; they'll need your Water Pulse!" The Swampert nodded and ran off on all fours in the direction that Totodile and Kingler had taken.

"Regice, use your Ice Beam!" Brandon told his Pokemon.

"Piloswine, Milotic, you too," Lucy ordered.

"Glalie, Icy Wind!" Ash commanded. The three separate Ice Beam's shot up into the sky, sped up by the Icy Wind, and struck Rayquaza; one in the chest, one on the tail, and one on the arm. Rayquaza roared in pain and reeled upwards as the Icy Wind then slammed into it, pellets of ice smashing against it's entire body.

Rayquaza dove downwards, hatred in it's eyes as it set off a barrage of Hyper Beam's.

A medley of attacks burst skywards. They collided with the many Hyper Beams and the power of colliding attacks caused a series of explosions, the smoke from which blanketed the Rayquaza from view. Some of the Hyper Beam's broke through and hurtled towards the trainers. Registeel used it's Iron Defence to absorb the attacks and protect the Pokemon and trainers behind it; Latias did the same with her Safeguard.

Gallade and Metagross worked together to coax the Ice Beam's through the thick smoke. Although they couldn't see the Rayquaza, they could sense it's position with their Psychic. They were rewarded by hearing shrieks of pain and rage from the Rayquaza.

Then it was gone. The eight trainers and their Pokemon stood stock-still listening intently.

"Charizard, blow the smoke away," Ash ordered. Charizard reared backwards and began to flap his wings as hard as he could. The smoke cleared slowly. They all looked around in confusion. The Rayquaza had vanished. Gary sighed in relief and was about to speak when the smell of burning once again blew in their direction.

"We've got to get out of here," Brandon stated, recalling his Regice and Registeel. "The Colosseum is burning rapidly; I don't think that the water types will be able to stop it."

"Kingler and Totodile!" Ash shouted in panic, running off quickly in the direction they had gone, Pikachu on his shoulder.

"I have Blastoise - it won't take long for Hydro Pump to put out the fire." He turned to the rest of the Frontier Brains. "You guys should all clear out; wait for us outside the Colosseum. There's no need to risk any more lives."

Anabel opened her mouth to protest, but Brandon beat her to it. "He's right," he said, looking at Anabel, Noland, Greta, and Lucy. "We'd only get in the way; none of our Pokemon can take that heat."

Lucy deliberately recalled her Milotic, but Brandon shook his head at her expression. "There is no water inside the Colosseum hallways," he stated. "Your Milotic would not be able to move."

"I'm not going without Ash," Anabel said firmly. Brandon grabbed her around the waist and threw her over his shoulder.

"Do not let your personal feeling for the boy get in the way of your reason!" he snapped as Anabel struggled to get free. She stopped moving, although small red patches had appeared on her cheeks. "Greta, Noland, Lucy; recall your Pokemon. We need to go." He walked towards the exit, not looking back.

Noland looked at the two woman and gave a small sigh. He recalled his three Pokemon and began to follow Brandon. Greta and Lucy both scowled their disagreement but followed suit and left the battlefield, Anabel's Metagross, Alakazam, and Espeon behind them.

Gary looked over at Ash's Pokemon. "Go with them," he said quietly. "There's nothing more any of you can do." Reluctantly, all save Gallade, Latias, and Charizard followed the Frontier Brains. Not even checking to see if Ash's Pokemon were obeying, Gary and Tucker raced off after Ash; Gallade, Charizard, and Latias looked at Gary and Tucker, at the retreating Pokemon and Frontier Brains, and finally at each other. Without a sound, they took off in hot pursuit of Gary and Tucker. As soon as they reached the hallways behind the battlefield, just barely behind the Professor and the Frontier Brain, they found themselves surrounded in a thick blanket of smoke.

"Blastoise, use your Rapid Spin to clear the smoke away," Gary called to his Pokemon.

"Blast," the water-type acknowledged and withdrew into it's shell, rotating rapidly. The smoke quickly cleared and Gary, Tucker, and Gallade raced on into the depths of the building. Charizard roared in frustration; it was too big to go inside. Latias tapped him on the shoulder and motioned for him to follow her. She took off into the sky and flew over the walls, landing just inside the training field.

Charizard was close behind, and let out a roar of horror; the house that Ash had been living in recently was consumed in flames, and through the window Charizard could see Ash laying on the ground, apparently unconscious, holding the egg canister in his arms. Totodile was dancing around him in panic as Kingler tried desperately to put out the fire that surrounded them.

Latias flew to the other side of the building and saw Tucker's Swampert lobbing a mixture of Water Pulses and Water Guns at the house, trying to put out the fire from the outside even as Kingler worked on the inside. She found Pikachu standing nervously next to Swampert, watching the efforts with fear in his eyes.

It was then that Charizard decided to do something extremely drastic. He climbed into the air quickly, trying to gain as much height as he dared. He tilted himself into a steep, fast dive, aiming for the room next to the one that he knew Ash was in.

Gary and Tucker reached an intersection in the building. The lights above them crackled menacingly with electricity; the fuses were beginning to blow from the heat and the smoke.

"Gallade!" Gary shouted, "can you sense where Ash is?" Gallade closed his eyes and reached out with Psychic, probbing every inch of the Colosseum grounds, trying to find Ash and the best way to reach him. His eyes snapped open.

"Er!" he nodded, and ran off in the direction he had sensed, Gary and Tucker close behind.

"Could you sense Swampert?" Tucker asked as he ran. Gallade nodded and motioned forwards again with his blades. They followed Gallade and ran through several clouds of smoke; they were stopped by a small fire at one spot, but it was quickly extinguished with a Hydro Pump. At last, they burst out into clear air, facing the training field and the flaming house. At that exact moment, Charizard slammed headfirst through the roof of the house, breaking into the rooms below.

"Swampert!" Tucker called, and he was rewarded by a full-throated roar from the other side of the house. He ran to the back, right as Pikachu came springing around to the front.

"Blastoise, use Hydro Cannon to fight the fire on this side of the building!" Gary ordered. He turned to Gallade. "Charizard may not be able to get out with Ash. Can you use your Psycho Cutter to open up the doorways?"

"Erlade!" Gallade responded, leaping forwards with it's blades glowing lavender. Seconds later the doorway had been widened considerably, and Gallade had vanished inside. Smoke poured out of the new exit and Gary waited, beside-himself with worry about his friend. At last a shape emerged from the smoke; it was Kingler, still spraying water wherever it could. A moment later it was followed by Gallade, who led a very downcast Totodile. At last Charizard appeared, carrying Ash limply in it's arms, hot tears coursing down the fire-types cheeks.

"Ash!" Gary shouted, springing forwards as Charizard lay the trainer on the ground, his arms still wrapped around the egg canister.

"Pika pi!" Pikachu cried out anxiously, rushing to his trainer.

"Come on, Ash," Gary said, pumping his chest as he began CPR. "Where's your fighting spirit? Don't give up on us now, don't you dare just give up."

"Pikachu!" Pikachu cried, his tears melding with Charizard's on the ground.

Gary worked for several minutes, but Ash gave no response. He looked up at the assembled Pokemon with a look of sadness on his face. "I... I think he's gone," he whispered. Charizard roared up at the sky in grief as Kingler and Totodile both began to shed their own tears. Latias came floating around from the other side of the building where she had stayed with Tucker and Swampert. As soon as she saw Ash's body on the ground and the sadness of the Pokemon surrounding him, she understood. Her own keening added to the song of loss.

"Pika... pikachu," Pikachu cried as he shook Ash, refusing to believe what had happened. "Pika, pika pi!" Gary picked up the electric-type and stood up slowly, the grief evident on his face.

"It's no good, Pikachu," Gary said quietly. "He's gone."

"Pi-ka-CHU!" Pikachu screamed. Electricity burst from his body in a magnificent beam of light that shot skywards, electrocuting everything nearby. With a scream of pain, Ash lurched upright, coughing up thick lumps of inhaled smoke.

"Ash!" Gary shouted.

"Pika pi!" Pikachu rejoiced, throwing himself forwards onto Ash.

"Wha-?" Ash managed to gasp out, hacking up another lump of solidified soot. He tried to stand up, but was pushed back down by Gary.

"What happened?" Ash insisted, although he allowed Gary to force him back into a sitting position.

"You were caught in the house as it was burning," Gary said simply. "You passed out from the smoke, and probably would have died if your Pokemon had gone in to save you." Ash lay on his back weakly, head spinning as he tried to absorb what was being said. He was able to grasp onto only one thing.

"My Pokemon saved me?" he asked. Gary nodded.

"Yep. Kingler tried to put out the fire, and Charizard used the strongest Take Down I've ever seen to break into the house. Gallade cut open the doorways so that Charizard could bring you out, and Pikachu revived you with a Thunderbolt."

"Toto," Totodile muttered sadly, looking at the ground utterly woebegone. He knew that he had done nothing to help. Ash chuckled painfully through his blistered throat and reached out to stroke him on the head.

Ash woke up. He opened his eyes, blinked, and opened them again. He wondered briefly why everything was so dark, but realized that it was because night had fallen. He coughed, his throat feeling extraordinarily dry and painful.

"Pika?" he heard Pikachu question from the side. He looked over and saw the electric-type standing next to him, eyes drooping with tiredness but keeping a steady watch over his trainer.

"Pikachu?" he asked, his throat burning.

"Pika pi!" Pika shouted. Instantly, Gary came running.

"Pikachu, what's wrong?" he asked urgently.

"Pika!" Pikachu said, pointing at Ash.

"Gary?" he asked, feeling a little dazed.

"It's about time you woke up," Gary said, smiling broadly. "You've been out for a couple of hours, and we were starting to worry again."

"We?" Ash asked faintly.

"Me, Anabel, and Brandon," Gary replied. "Noland, Greta, Lucy, and Tucker all just stayed long enough to satisfy themselves that you'd be okay before they went off to Viridian City. Your battle was shown on TV worldwide you know; we all figured that since Viridian City is the closest place to the Battle Colosseum, that would be where are the reporters would go. Noland sent a message to Brandon with his Manectric about an hour ago; apparently the last thing seen on TV was the Rayquaza appearing and attacking, and then the connection got cut off. From the sound of it, it's a good thing that they all went to head off the reporters!"

"Gary," Ash asked, his throat now feeling as if there was a Flamethrower inside it, "could you get me a glass of water? My throat's parched."

"Sure thing, Ashy-boy," Gary said with a smile. He walked a few feet to the side and came back with a canteen full of water. "Be sure to drink it slowly," he cautioned. Ash took a couple of sips; the sweet liquid dribbled down his throat, cooling the burning sensation. He thought it was the best thing he'd ever tasted.

"Thanks," he said, feeling much better. "Where are we?"

"I think we're about halfway between the Colosseum and Pallet Town," Gary answered. "It normally only takes a couple of hours to walk, but we've taken much longer because we had to carry you, and because we decided to go through the forest so that we could hopefully avoid any reporters who managed to sneak out to the Colosseum."

"Oh," Ash said, thinking about this for a moment. "Where's Anabel and Brandon?" Gary smiled.

"Anabel tried to stay up as long as she could looking after you, but just after Brandon got Noland's message she collapsed from exhaustion," he said. "We put her over by the fire and just let her sleep. As soon as she saw you on the ground, she insisted that she be the one to carry you back to Pallet." Ash was glad that it was dark. He had no idea why his cheeks were suddenly burning.

"Where are Charizard, Gallade, Totodile, and the others?" Ash asked, grabbing Gary's shoulders to support himself.

"Look around you," Gary said, waving his hand in a wide circle. Ash looked in astonishment. Assembled in a rough circle around her were Charizard, Latias, Kingler, Gallade, and Totodile, all fast asleep.

"What about everyone I sent out after the Frontier Brains?" he asked.

"They all went back to Pallet Town, just before we found you. Brandon made them go," Gary said with a grin. Ash nodded and let go of Gary, thinking he could stand by himself now.

"At least they're all okay," he said. His legs suddenly buckled, and he crashed to the ground.

"Ash, are you okay?" Gary asked him.

"Never better," the trainer grumbled.

"Get some sleep, Ash," he said gently. "You'll feel much better in the morning." Ash nodded and closed his eyes. In a few moments, he was asleep. Gary watched him for a moment and then turned to tend to the fire, leaving Pikachu the lone watch for the exhausted trainer from Pallet Town.

The sunlight streamed brokenly through the trees as Ash, Pikachu, Gary, Anabel, and Brandon made their way back to the path. Ash paused for a moment, trying to take a breath of fresh air. His throat and chest still hurt, a lot, but he knew that there wasn't anything he could do about it for now. At least he could walk.

It was late evening, and the four of them had been already been walking for hours. Anabel looked back at Ash, concern evident on her face. But she had seen the path through the trees ahead, and she knew that they'd be able to rest once they reached it. Who could have known that the forest would get so thick?

"It's not much further now, Ash," she reassured him, stepping through the last of the trees and emerging on the side of a long trail that curved with the forest. As Brandon and Gary emerged, she looked out over the field that stretched in front of them. The sun was just beginning to dive below the ground; it looked very pretty.

Ash slumped against the side of a tree, hacking hoarsely. In a few moments, he had regained his breath and looked around in surprise.

"I know this place," he said, eyeing a lone tree in the centre of a field. "This is where I tried to catch a Spearow when I first started out."

"Were you successful?" Brandon asked.

"Not exactly," Ash said with the hint of a smile on his face. "Pikachu wouldn't attack it, so I tried throwing a rock at it." He sighed. "Was that ever a mistake. It's because of that Spearow that Pikachu and I are buds now, but it's because of that same Spearow that I had to leave Pidgeot behind." He stood up, brushing down his jeans. "Pallet Town is just over that hill," he said. "We can be there in half an hour."

In silence, the four of them slowly climbed the hill, Pikachu perched on Ash's shoulder as usual. Brandon and Gary reached the top first and paused as Anabel helped Ash up the hill - all of the smoke he had inhaled the day before was still affecting him. At last, they joined Brandon and Gary at the crest of the hill. Ash stopped and looked down at Pallet Town. A stunned expression crossed his face. He looked at Gary, hoping that it was a trick of the fading light, and saw that he had tears swimming in his eyes.

Professor Oak's lab was gone. Destroyed. A lightly smoking collection of debris was all that remained of the building and windmill. The forest and plains where the Pokemon stayed were charred black. The two lakes were dirty, and polluted looking.

"It's gone," Gary whispered, his voice tight with the pain of seeing his childhood home destroyed. "It's just... gone." The two people from Pallet stared down in disbelief at the wreckage.

I can't believe it, Ash thought. This is the place where I got Pikachu; where I started my Pokemon journey; where all of my Pokemon lived until I moved into the Battle Colosseum. Realization crashed in on him. When he'd moved over to the Colosseum, all of his Pokemon at the lab had been transferred over... all save one who had been needed to keep the peace among the other inhabitants.

He took off running, not caring about the pain lancing from his lungs. "Ash, come back!" he heard Brandon shout. He ignored him.

"BULBASAUR!" he shouted, "BULBASAUR, ARE YOU THERE?" He ran down the hill, moving faster than he could ever remember, still shouting. He heard footsteps well behind him, and knew that Brandon, Gary, and Anabel were all following. He ran, and ran, until he finally reached the destroyed lab.

Tears of sadness and rage clouded his face. He slowed and walked into the grounds, checking under every piece of rubble he came to for a sign of his friend. Every so often, a recognizable artefact would be discovered, jolting his stomach. He found the cover of a notebook that he recognized as being Tracey's, all of the pages lost. There was an aged, ripped drawing of a Pikachu and a Celebi ruffling slightly in the breeze, one corner trapped under a charred wooden beam.

"Bulbasaur!" he shouted, his voice echoing around the dark and ruined landscape. He waited, but there was no answering cry.

"Ash," Anabel said softly, taking him by the sleeve. "Ash, come on. You need to get home."

"No, I'm not leaving until I find Bulbasaur!" He pulled back sharply, wrenching Anabel's hand painfully. Not noticing her gasp of pain, he began to shift some more wreckage.

"Let's go, Ash," Gary said, trying to drag him away.

"I can't. I can't leave without Bulbasaur. Don't you understand?" he asked.

Ash began to feel dazed as the truth of Gary's statement hit him. Either Bulbasaur had left the lab, or... he shuddered. The alternative was too horrible to think about. He allowed himself to be led away from the ruins of what was once Professor Oak's lab, not really noticing where he was being taken, and only vaguely aware that it was now night. Bulbasaur, he kept thinking. Bulbasaur, where are you?

"Bubba-saur!" a voice cried out. He yanked his head up, instantly returned to his senses. Running towards them was a Bulbasaur, but not his. He felt despair begin to crowd over him again until he recognized it by the two heart-shaped markings on it's forehead.

"How would that Bulbasaur know if Ash's Bulbasaur was okay?" Anabel wondered aloud.

"When May first came over to Kanto she left her Bulbasaur with mine at Professor Oak's lab," Ash answered. "Bulbasaur, can you take me to my Bulbasaur?"

In response, May's Bulbasaur turned and charged back the way it had come. Ash panted as he followed, a little surprised by it's speed. The Bulbasaur made a sharp turn and hurtled up Ash's garden, extending it's vines to ring the doorbell. The door opened just as Ash, Gary, Anabel, and Brandon reached it.

"Ash! Gary!" Delia shrieked, throwing her arms around him. "Thank goodness you're both okay, we were so worried!" In moments, the doorway was crowded with people and Pokemon, all struggling to see Ash and Gary with their own eyes. Brandon tugged on Anabel's jacket and jerked his head back towards the yard. She nodded and followed him into the darkness.

Together, Delia and Mr. Mime pushed Ash and Gary into the house. Ash almost fell over when he saw just how many people and Pokemon were crowded inside the living room - including his Bulbasaur.

"Bulbasaur!" Ash cried, pulling away from Delia.

"Bulba!" Bulbasaur responded, running towards Ash before leaping into his arms, a vine whip encircling the boy tightly in a hug. Ash looked up from his Pokemon and saw Tracey sitting in a chair, a tight grimace of pain on his face - Ash noticed that his leg was twisted at a very odd angle. Still, he smiled at Ash along with the rest.

"Tracey, what happened?" Ash asked, walking up to the Pokemon Watcher. Tracey just shook his head and looked around the room.

"It was the Rayquaza, Ash," Professor Oak said abruptly. He turned and looked out the window in the direction where his destroyed home lay. "When it suddenly appeared during your battle, I realized that it must have crossed Pallet Town on the way because of it's direction. When it started to attack, I wondered if maybe someone in Pallet had somehow angered it."

"They didn't," Tracey said, uncharacteristically harshly. "Nearly everyone from Pallet Town had gone to the Colosseum, hoping to see you win and mark Pallet as a place of champions. I was one of the only people who stayed behind, and that was because I volunteered to look after all of the Pokemon in the lab. I was watching your match on TV when I heard a roar coming from outside. It didn't sound like any of the Pokemon at the lab, so I went outside to have a look."

His eyes darkened, and for a moment his hands balled into fists. "It was the Rayquaza," he said in a bitter tone. "It just flew up from the south. I couldn't believe my eyes. A legendary Pokemon, in Pallet Town! It just stared down at the lab and seemed really confused. Then it saw a knot of Jumpluff and a pod of Poliwhirl by one of the lakes. It just went berserk and started firing all kinds of attacks at the Pokemon. For some reason both lakes started turning brown. I think it some of the banks must have collapsed and sent a bunch of dirt into them or something. Some of the Pokemon ran into the lab, but it actually attacked the building! I've never seen anything like it. That Rayquaza absolutely destroyed the lab." He fell silent, struggling to contain his anger.

"Tracey told us that Bulbasaur here was brave enough to try and fight it off," Professor Oak cut in. "Unfortunately, none of it's grass attacks seemed to do anything but distract it's attention. Bulbasaur was lucky to get away by hiding in the forest with May's Bulbasaur."

"The Rayquaza just wouldn't stop attacking," Tracey broke in again. "Everytime it saw a Pokemon, it attacked. Most of them ran off, but I have no idea where they've gone. I've never seen a Pokemon lose control like that."

"But what happened to your leg?" Gary asked.

"When the Pokemon ran inside the building and the Rayquaza kept trying to attack them, I went in to try and get them out into the forest so they could hide," Tracey said. "The building came down right as I got to the door. I'm not sure what it was, but something hit me in the leg and broke it. If May hadn't come up on Pidgeot and led everyone to me, I'm not sure what would have happened. Both of the Bulbasaur were trying to look after me though." That was when Ash realized that something was wrong.

May stood alone in the backyard, near the pond at the back of the garden. A pool of light from the windows fell on her back, illuminating her shadow on the surface of the pond. She watched silently as the Tauros slept peacefully on the other side, noticing that Sceptile lay quietly in a tree a little to her right. She was sure that Noctowl, Swellow, Pidgeot, and Ambipom were up there too.

She stooped and picked up a couple of pebbles on the ground. She slid them around her hand, allowing all but two to slide back to the earth. She lightly tossed one pebble into the water, watching as it fell beneath the surface with a light "ploop". She rolled the other pebble around in her fingers, feeling it's perfectly smooth, round shape. She was about to toss it into the water too but then changed her hand, sticking it in her pocket.

A short burst of red light, and May released her Eevee, yawning, from her Poke Ball.

"Vui?" her Pokemon asked, curious why she had been called out. May bent down and scratched Eevee's head before slowly walking to the tree and sitting down softly in the dirt at it's base.

"Oh, it's nothing," she said quietly. "Sometimes it's just helpful to have somebody to talk to, or just be there I guess." She sighed, and Eevee climbed into her lap, curling up into a little ball and then looking up into May's beautiful sapphire eyes. To Eevee's surprise, they were sparkling with the first sign of tears.

"Vui eievui?" Eevee asked. May closed her eyes and shook her head. From within the house she heard faint conversation, and she knew that Ash was being filled in on what had happened at the lab. To Eevee's alarm, soft tears began to fall soundlessly from beneath her lashes. Although May made no sound or movement, Eevee knew that she was crying. She pawed at her trainer, and May suddenly reached down and gave Eevee a tight hug.

They stayed that way for several moments until May's tears stopped flowing. She wiped her eyes on her sleeve and looked down at Eevee. Eevee didn't know what was going on, but she was just glad that she had somehow been able to comfort her trainer.

"Thank you, Eevee," she said softly.

"Vui," Eevee smiled, curling into a tight ball again. May looked out over the pond for a little while, just watching the breeze ripple the water against the reeds. It was extremely peaceful.

"Pika?" Eevee looked up quickly at the noise then turned to May, an expression of longing on her face.

"Go on, Eevee," she said, a sad smile on her face. "It's been ages since you've played with Pikachu. Go and catch up - I'll be alright here for a little while."

"Eievui," Eevee said with a smile, and dashed over to where she'd heard Pikachu. May watched the two of them as they ran over to the other side of the yard, and noticed that both of the Bulbasaur had materialized and joined them. She smiled a little inwardly, although her expression remained sad. Somebody flopped down next to her. She knew who it was without even turning to look. Only one person had that little grace.

The two of them looked towards the pond, although May could sense that he kept stealing sideways glances at her. They sat like that for a long time in silence; not uncomfortable, just tranquil. Looking at the reflection in the water, May realized that it was a full moon.

"I'm glad you're okay, May," Ash said at last. "Tracey told me how you warned the others about the lab, and his leg."

"Don't ever do that to me again, Ash," May said quietly.

"Do what?" Ash asked, puzzled.

"Force me to leave in a dangerous situation. I could have helped fight off the Rayquaza. I could have helped you. Anabel told me what happened in the house before she left with Brandon. If it hadn't been for your Pokemon you would have died."

"How could I have known that something like that would happen?" Ash asked. "If I'd known that I'd have been trapped in a burning building, do you really think that I would have gone off like that. What was important to me was that all of my friends were safe. I couldn't have lived if one of my friends died because I didn't protect them. Don't you understand that?"

May tore her gaze away from the pond and looked into Ash's auburn eyes. "I understand completely, Ash," she said. "I understood when Pidgeot flew me away. But don't you understand how your friends would feel if they found out that you died protecting them, without them at your side? Worry might make you battle more rashly, but friendship is a strong bond. If you'd let your friends battle with you the way you let the Frontier Brains, the Rayquaza might have been driven off before the fire started, and before you home was destroyed."

Ash faltered at her logic and looked away from her eyes. He began to pick at the grass beside him.

"I'm sorry, May," he said at last. "I didn't think of it that way before. I was just too, well, worried to realize that we could have fought better side-by-side than individually."

Emotion welled up inside May. Unable to suppress it, she burst out into tears, throwing her arms around a very startled and surprised Ash. He patted her back awkwardly as she cried into his chest. He looked helplessly over at Pikachu, who was studiously ignoring the situation and determinedly trying to distract Eevee. At last, May's heaving stopped. She stayed in that position for a while longer, her arms held around an increasingly uncomfortable Ash, her face buried obscured by his now damp shirt.

"Promise me that you'll never make me leave like that again," May whispered.

"I promise," Ash said, still holding her awkwardly. They stayed like that for a few more minutes until Ash heard May begin to breathe more slowly and deeply. Realizing that she had fallen asleep, he gently unhooked her arms from around his neck and stood up, stretching his numb legs. He took a few experimental steps before turning back to May. He gently picked her up and carried her into the now-dark house, Pikachu and Eevee following at a distance while the two Bulbasaur made themselves comfortable outside.

Lying comfortably on a tree branch, Sceptile chuckled softly to himself, having seen and heard everything. His trainer was maturing in a way that he never had before.

May woke up when the sunlight played gently over her face. She sat up and realized that she was on the floor in Ash's room, a sleeping bag beneath her. She looked up at the bed and saw Dawn, still fast asleep, her long navy hair obscuring her eyes.

"Good morning, May," Misty greeted her. May turned and saw her at Ash's desk, looking over all of Ash's badges and plaques.

"Morning, Misty," May replied, standing up with a stretch. "Did we all sleep in here?"

"I think someone must have carried me up," she said. "Last thing I can remember, I was in the backyard looking at the pond. Where did you sleep? Did you share the bed with Dawn?"

"No," Misty answered. "Dawn claimed the bed pretty early in the day, before Ash even got back actually. She told me not to sleep on it tonight no matter what. I actually went to bed a lot earlier than her, but I just slept on the floor like you did. Dawn stayed up pretty late talking to Max and Brock, so I'm not surprised that she's still asleep now."

The wafting scent of bacon stole into the room under the doorframe. May gave a huge sniff and smiled. "Well, it looks like Brock is up at least," she said with a smile. "He's the only guy I know who can cook like that!"

With her stomach rumbling, she ran for the door, flung it upon, and skidded to a halt. Sitting upright against the wall was Ash, his blue jacket folded next to him and being used as a pillow by both Pikachu and Eevee. All three were soundly asleep. May turned to Misty and pressed a finger to her lips, motioning for her to be quiet. Misty peered over May's shoulder and gave a silent giggle at the scene. The two girls quietly crept down the stairs and entered the kitchen. A scene of complete chaos met their eyes.

Delia, Gary, Norman, Caroline, Tracey, and Professor Oak were all sitting at the table, drinking tea and coffee. They were doing their level best to avoid looking at Brock and Mr. Mime, both of whom were struggling against each other for control of the kitchen. While Brock fried the bacon, Mr. Mime started on the toast. Brock chased him away, only to turn and find Mr. Mime cooking the bacon himself. Likewise, Mr. Mime was trying to brew a fresh pot of tea, but the moment he turned around Brock poured it out and began to brew a different kind.

"Some things never change," Misty sighed, taking a seat at the table next to Caroline.

"Good morning Misty, May," Professor Oak greeted.

"Morning Professor," they chorused back.

"How long has this been going on for?" May asked, indicating the battle between Brock and Mr. Mime as both tried to serve the table first.

"Since Ash competed in the Orange League," Delia said with a sigh. May looked puzzled, but before she could ask any more questions Ash and Max entered the room.

"Hey guys," Ash said, stifling a yawn with his hand.

"Good morning, Ash," Delia said with a smile as she took a sip of her coffee. "Morning Max."

"Good morning, Mrs. Ketchum, Mom, Dad," he answered back.

"Has there been any more news about the Rayquaza?" Ash asked, noticing that the TV was on. Norman sighed.

"Yes and no," he said. "All we know for certain is that it came from the south. Now, the ocean is only a couple of hours walking distance from Pallet, so whatever it was that attacked it had to have come from the Ocean, the Sevii Islands, Cinnabar Island, or the Orange Islands. It's possible that it came from Hoenn, but I don't think it likely that the Rayquaza would fly that far when it's injured."

"The News crews picked up on the burn too," Norman said. "There were reports coming in for a couple of hours before your match that a Rayquaza was attacking indiscriminately, but they were all ignored for a couple of reasons; there was no proof, and Rayquaza is a legendary Pokemon. Almost nobody has ever seen one, so why should there be a sudden spurt of sightings?"

"But then proof arrived in an unexpected way," Professor Oak cut in. "Your match was shown around the world. Everybody watching saw the Rayquaza arrive and attack. The trouble is that now that everybody is looking for the Rayquaza, it seems to have disappeared. Nobody's seen it since it destroyed the Colosseum."

Ash shook his head. "Where did all of the attacks start?" he asked.

"Last night the news crew said that the first reported attacks happened on Kumquat Island," Caroline said. A cold pit suddenly materialized in Ash's stomach. He looked up and his eyes sought Brock. They stared at each other, each hoping that they were wrong.

"Could somebody please get me a map of the Orange Islands?" Ash asked, forcing himself to stay calm. Looking confused, Delia strode off to the bookcase in the living room. She quickly returned with an atlas of the Pokemon World. Ash took it from her with fumbling fingers and flipped to the Index, finding the page that showed all of the Orange Islands.

"Has anybody heard anything about any other attacks in the Orange or Sevii Islands?" Brock asked.

"There was something about a Zapdos appearing near Kinnow Island, but because there was no proof some of the people investigating the Rayquaza attacks have said that it was probably just a misidentified Rayquaza," Delia said.

Gary snorted. "It's a bit difficult to mistake them," he said. "One's yellow and has wings; the other's green and looks like a flying snake."

"Kumquat Island is north of Shamouti Island," Brock said. "Just south of Shamouti, there are three islets - Fire Island, Ice Island, and Lightning Island. They're the homes of Moltres, Articuno, and Zapdos."

"When I was in the Orange Islands, something extremely bad happened," Ash said.

"That's an understatement," Misty muttered. Latias suddenly ran down the stairs in her human form. She beamed at everyone, waving, but to her surprise nobody noticed her appearance.

"A Pokemon Collector was trying to catch a Lugia," Ash continued. "To do that, he had to lure it out by capturing all three legendary birds. He knew that Lugia would appear because it's their guardian, for lack of a better word."

"I remember that too," Professor Oak said. "But when he began to capture the birds it disrupted the world's weather. This time, the Pokemon are attacking."

"I'm positive that the burn was caused by Moltres," Ash said. "I don't know of any other Pokemon that could do so much damage to a legendary."

"Maybe it was an Entei," Misty suggested. Gary shook his head.

"Entei can't cross water, Misty," he said. "Whatever it was, it either lived there or flew there. A Moltres is the only thing that makes sense."

"But why would a Moltres just attack a Rayquaza for no reason?" May asked. "It doesn't make sense." Everybody fell silent for a few moments, trying to think of reasons why this would have happened.

"There was something else I noticed about the Rayquaza," Ash said slowly. "For some reason, it was only attacking the Pokemon at first. It was only after they all disappeared behind the dust that it started to attack the actual building."

"The same thing happened at the lab," Tracey said. "It only tried to attack the building when the Pokemon ran inside, and it ignored me completely." The colour drained from Professor Oak's face.

"You say that it was only attacking the Pokemon?" he asked. Ash and Tracey both nodded. "Did you notice anything else... strange, about it?" he asked.

"I thought that it had a weird look in it's eyes," Ash said, screwing up his eyes in concentration. "I've seen a Rayquaza before, but never looking like that. They were kind of glinting. And it shuddered a couple of times too, but it was barely noticeable."

"I remember the eyes too," Tracey said. "They had a cruel, look in them, but there was pain there too. I can't remember seeing it shudder though."

"What is it, Gramps?" Gary asked, seeing the look on the Professor's face. "Do you know why the Rayquaza acted that way?"

"I have a glimmer of an idea, but I've never heard of it affecting a Pokemon in that way before," Professor Oak said, turning away from the table.

Sorry for the long delay in between uploading. I was sorting out some plagiarism issues with another author on BMGF, and I also had a hard time getting this forum to load. Plus, I had several homework assignments, university applications, and a new chapter to write and then post on Fanfiction.net (Chapter 23 if anyone's counting).

Okay, enough of the excuses for tonight! Here's the next installment transferred to Serebii.net Forums; all reviews are much appreciated (and desired!)

It was dawn. Somewhere outside Viridian City, the bushes rustled. A Weedle looked down from a nearby tree branch curiously. With a pop, a large blue creature burst up from the bushes, mouth wide open. "Weeeeeee!" Terrified, the Weedle scuttled off as fast as it could.

"Waaaabbuffet!" the creature said, it's right arm touching it's forehead. It looked around. "Wabba, wobba wab?" it called. There was no answer. It looked around in panic, but couldn't see any sign of life through the undergrowth. The Wobbuffet sat down sadly. "Waab," it murmured. The bushes nearby rustled, and the Wobbuffet looked up eagerly. "Wabba?" it asked.

Several Beedrill emerged, their red eyes glowing angrily at the Pokemon who had dared frighten their baby. They began to fly towards the Wobbuffet, stingers outstretched.

"Wabba wabba!" the Wobbuffet screamed in panic, turning and running south as fast as it could, the Beedrill in hot pursuit.

The trainer looked down the path, humming happily. It was another hot summer day in the open, almost too hot with the insulating green pants he wore, specially tailored for the Sinnoh Region. But here under the trees it was quite cool, especially with the breeze and the rain clouds that could occasionally be glimpsed overhead, and the path he was on should lead him straight through Viridian Forest. After that, he decided, I'll rest at Pewter City.

He heard a moan come from around the corner just ahead and he paused uncertainly. He heard it again; it didn't sound human. He began walking quickly towards it. Maybe a Pokemon was hurt and needed help. He rounded the corner and gasped. At the base of a large tree was an unconscious and badly injured Meowth. From the markings on the bark, it looked like the Meowth had somehow been run into the trunk about halfway up before sliding down to the ground.

He bent to the injured Pokemon, wondering what could have propelled a Meowth into the tree at that height and speed. Maybe a Fearow caught it trying to rob it's nest, he thought. Or maybe it made a Nidoking really angry somehow. I've heard that there are a couple of wild ones around here. He reached out to touch the Pokemon, but it shivered at his touch and cried out in pain.

The trainer bit his lip in worry. The nearest Pokemon Centre was back the way he'd come, in Viridian City. But even if he ran all of the way, it would still take a couple of hours to get there. The Meowth was too badly hurt for him to carry if the previous reaction was any indication. He sighed. He had no choice; he was going to have to catch it. Thanking the fates that he only had five Pokemon on him at the moment, he took a spare Poke Ball, enlarged it, and touched the Meowth with it as gently as possible. In a flash of red light, it burst inside. He watched the Poke Ball intently, but it didn't even wobble once.

At least it wasn't a trainer's lost Meowth, he thought. I'd have had to leave it here for the trainer to find by themselves then. He bit his lip again. How to get to the Pokemon Centre as fast as possible?

"Cruz, let's go!" he shouted, throwing out a Poke Ball. In a burst of light, a Tyranitar emerged. "Cruz," he began, but upon seeing it's trainer the Tyranitar turned away. "Cruz, please!" he shouted. "I know that you don't like me, and haven't listened to me since you evolved, but I need your help." The Tyranitar yawned, and then growled at the sky as the first drops of rain began.

"Please, Cruz," he begged. "I just found an injured Meowth. It's hurt real bad. It needs to get to a Pokemon Centre right away, but I won't be able to get there fast enough. You can move a lot faster than me. I need you to take the Pokemon back to Viridian City now!" The Tyranitar glanced at it's trainer. Hate for him shone through it's eyes.

"I know you hate the rain, but if you don't do it, the Meowth could die. Please Cruz, do this one thing for me. I promise that I'll never ask you to do anything again if you'll just help me this one time." The Tyranitar gave an inward groan. Hating itself for listening to it's trainer, but knowing that it was the only one who could help save the injured Pokemon's life, what choice did it have? It closed it's eyes and gave an abrupt nod.

"Thank you," the trainer whispered, pressing the Poke Ball into the Tyranitar's hand. Sparing time only to give a contemptuous look to it's trainer, the Tyranitar stomped off as fast as it could among the trees. The trainer gave a huge sigh of regret as he watched the Tyranitar leave.

Groaning, the man dangled painfully from the tree branch. He put a hand to his blue hair, wincing at the size of the bump on his head. He looked at the ground and was surprised to see how high up he was. He sighed and began searching for a branch within his reach so that he could climb down. He found one almost instantly, just below him. He tried to wriggle off the branch, but found that he couldn't move.

Panicking, he tried to move in the opposite direction, but with no success. He realized that his right arm felt unusually heavy. He turned to see why and groaned. His arm was jammed between several tightly-knitted branches, leaving him stuck in this tree unless he was able to free himself. He began to slowly try and manoeuvre his arm out, wincing every time it became jammed between the branches.

"Fear?" he heard a voice croak. Looking up from his arm, he was startled to suddenly see a young Fearow pop it's neck out from behind the branches.

"H-hello," he said with a weak grin. Two more baby Fearow raised their necks to look at him. Realization dropped. The branches weren't in that shape naturally, they had been woven. His arm had crushed through a Fearow's nest. A shadow wheeled over him, and he gulped as he felt rather than saw several long claws ruffle through his hair.

The angry mother landed next to him, hissing menacingly at his close proximity to her chicks. A slightly smaller male landed next to his mate, a hard glint of rage in his eyes. The man stared at them both in fear. The two furious parents let out a simultaneous screech of anger and lunged at the man, their beaks glowing as they launched into a combined Drill Peck.

A powerful electric attack crashed upwards, so close that the man felt his eyebrows begin to crackle from the sheer intensity. It smashed directly into the two Fearow, and both the mother and the father wheeled upwards towards the rain-soaked clouds that soared overhead, trying to escape the attack. The man gave a sigh of relief and looked downwards. A dark-haired trainer and his Electivire stood on the path. The trainer had a bored expression on his face as he watched the two Fearow circle far overhead.

"Thank you," the man called down gratefully.

"For what?" the trainer answered, a contemptuous note in his voice. "I was trying to capture those Fearow, not save you."

"Oh... well, do you think you could help me to get down before those Fearow come back?" he asked.

"Why? Scared to climb down?" the trainer asked, condescension on his face.

"No, my arm's stuck inside the Fearow's nest. That's why they attacked me," the man explained. The trainer gazed upwards and gave a sideways nod to his Electivire. The Pokemon leaped into the tree as the rain began, scaling it rapidly.

"But there are young Fearow in there, they could get hurt!" he protested.

"I don't care about the babies, all I care about is catching one of the adults," the trainer said with a snort. "Do it, Electivire."

"Erek." The Electivire raised an arm, white tendrils covering it's fur. In one swift motion it brought the arm downwards, smashing through the side of the nest, freeing the man's arm, and sending the three young Fearow plummeting earthwards, squawking in alarm. Without thinking, the man slid over the edge of the branch, arms outstretched.

Two of the Fearow flapped their little wings as hard as they could, managing to gain enough lift to steer themselves towards a branch which they grasped onto with all of their might. Paralysed with fear, the third Fearow plummeted to the ground, shrieking. Falling just behind it, the man reached out and managed to grab the Fearow by it's wingtip. He swung it upwards, burying the bird Pokemon in his chest right before he crashed into the ground shoulder-first, sending up a spray of mud.

"Pathetic," the trainer muttered, motioning his Electivire to jump down before walking off. "I'll never catch those Fearow now."

The man groaned and struggled to his knees. His shoulder ached abominably and he was sore all over, but it didn't feel like any bones were broken. He was silently grateful for the rain. The mud had softened his fall enough to avoid serious damage.

"I'll be okay," the man assured him, massaging his injured shoulder gently. "I've been in a lot of falls worse than that before." He looked up to where the nest had once been and winced regretfully. "I'm sorry that your home was destroyed. I didn't want that to happen," he said softly. "Still, at least you're okay." He gave the young Fearow a weak smile and then realized that the trainer was some distance down the path.

"Hey wait!" he called, scrambling to his feet and running after the trainer.

"What now?" the trainer asked, turning with an annoyed look on his face.

"Can you tell me where I am, and how to get to the nearest city?" the man asked. The trainer snorted.

"You mean you don't even know where you are?"

"Uhh, not as such, no. When you get blasted off by a Rayquaza's Hyper Beam, you don't really have time to plan out your route."

"Huh, so you were at the match between Cynthia and that weakling Ash, were you?" the trainer assumed. Without waiting for an answer he continued. "You're in a forest that's west of Viridian City. To get there, you need to go that direction." He pointed back the way he'd come.

"Thank you. But don't you think that's kind of harsh, calling the twerp a weakling? He was fighting to become a Master."

"I've beaten him so many times," the trainer muttered, anger pooling out of his eyes. "He'll always be weak until he learns that the only strong Pokemon is one that knows a powerful attack when it's caught." The man hesitated for a moment and then held out his hand.

"My name's-"

"I know who you are, James," the trainer said, sticking his hands in his pockets. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go and meet my father at Tohjo Falls. He said that there's something he needs me to do." He turned and took a few steps down the path before stopping and glancing back, a calculating look in his narrowed eyes. He recalled hearing something about James recently...

"Want to come with me?" he asked. James started.

"Eh, but, Tohjo Falls isn't on the way to Viridian," he began.

"You'll like my father," the trainer said.

"I should really just try to find my friends at the nearest Pokemon Centre," James argued.

"I'll make sure my father gives you a five-course meal made by the greatest chefs in Kanto," the trainer smirked. James gulped. Right on que, his stomach rumbled.

"Five courses?" he asked. The trainer shrugged.

"Make it six if you like," he said.

"Well, when you put it like that..." James said.

"My name's Paul," the trainer said. "If you're going to come with me, just try and keep up." Abruptly, he turned and began to walk down the path, hands still buried in his pockets.

James stood there, slightly stunned at the sudden change from indifference, to warmth, to downright contempt. He sighed and felt a sudden weight on his shoulder as the young Fearow landed on it. "It'll be difficult to stay on his good side," he muttered, as much to the Fearow as to himself. To his surprise, the Fearow reached down and pecked a Poke Ball on his belt. The Poke Ball absorbed the Fearow, rolled once, and then clanked still.

James looked at the Poke Ball in disbelief, but felt a warm feeling growing inside. At least he wouldn't be travelling with Paul alone.

"I thought Professor Namba said they were in Viridian City," Butch complained to Cassidy.

"They were when he told us that a week ago," she said, reclining comfortably on the sofa. "Who knows where they've gone to now?"

"Probably still following that kid and his Pikachu," Butch muttered. Cassidy overheard him.

"Hey, that's not a bad idea," she said. "He was in that match with Cynthia right? I'm guessing he's probably gone back to his home town for a little while until all of the interest dies. Maybe they'll be there too."

"Yeah, maybe," Butch acquiesced. He looked unhappily around the hotel room. It was a luxurious suite that had a balcony, a fireplace, a 50-inch Plasma TV, and furniture made of the softest leather. It even had two single beds, and the whole room was being paid for by the organization. He hated it. He hated the room, he hated his situation, and he feared the future. Just before they had left for Viridian City, Giovanni had made a surprise appearance. He'd reiterated that he wanted Jessie, James, and Meowth dead; and he'd promised them that if they didn't do it, they'd be taking their places.

Butch growled in his frustration. No matter what happened, he'd end up being either dead, or a murderer. He stood and walked towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Cassidy asked without too much interest.

"I need... fresh air," he muttered, and stalked out of the room.

"We have a balcony," she pointed out, but he was already gone.

Butch left the hotel and walked down the street slowly. He didn't notice the darkening sky. He didn't pay any attention to where he was going, and just let his feet lead the way. He hunched over everytime he passed someone, wishing he'd put on another shirt. The large red 'R' on his black vest almost instantly identified him as a member of Team Rocket.

Unable to bear the stares people gave him any longer, he turned off into an alleyway, took off his shirt and flipped it inside-out. It may look bad, but at least people won't be going out of their way to avoid me, he thought dully. He put his shirt back on and continued to walk down the alley, emerging into a small park. He wandered aimlessly around until he saw a free set of swings. Sitting down in the centre-most one he began to kick back and forth, moving forwards and back slowly, barely aware of the black clouds that raced overhead.

He began to think about his life, and all of the decisions he had made that had ended up putting him in this situation. How did it end being like this? What decision did I ever make that would force me to either kill, or be killed? What can I do? These questions raced around in his mind over and over again. Despite being a part of Team Rocket, and all of the evil things he had done for the organization, he didn't consider himself a bad person. He'd been a street kid when the recruiters came around; he had no real future away from the gangs, and by being part of Team Rocket he'd get a good salary, and his very own Pokemon.

He sighed and shook his head as the rain began. No matter how many times he looked through his life, he never saw anything that he could have done differently. It seemed that he had always been destined to be a killer.

Jessie awoke in the bushes when a heavy gust of wind caused several nearby pinecones to rise from the ground and pelt her in the forehead. She moaned and put a hand to her bruised head; she could feel a massive headache coming on, and suspected that the pinecones would only make it worse.

"What a day," she groaned. "First we try to sell refreshments at the twerp's match to make a little cash and pay back our debt, but nobody will buy anything. Then that Rayquaza appears and blasts us all away. And now it looks like it's going to start raining," she grumbled as the first few drops alighted on her head.

"Meowth, do something," she whined. "Get me a blanket so I don't get wet." She waited for the usual snarky response, and her eyes snapped open when it didn't come. She looked around, but she was all alone. "Meowth?" she called, a note of panic in her voice. "James! Answer me!" Her only reply was another strong gust of wind.

"Brilliant," she sighed. "Looks like I've only got Wobbuffet for company." She closed her eyes, waiting for the customary self-release. "Wobbuffet?" she asked sharply. Her eyes opened as she looked for the right Poke Ball on her belt. Finally finding it she called Wobbuffet out, but the ball just bounced squelchily on the rapidly dampening path. She closed her eyes in horror, recalling that Wobbuffet had been selling snacks with them.

"Wobbuffet!" she screamed. "Wobbuffet, where are you?"

"Need some help?" she heard a voice ask. She opened her eyes and saw a green-haired coordinator in a loose purple jacket.

"Oh no," she groaned, closing her eyes again. "Not you." The coordinator looked surprised at her reaction and bent closer.

"Jessie!" he said in surprise. "I didn't recognize you under all of that mud."

"Thanks, twerp," she muttered. "Are you going to help me out of this bush or what?"

"On two conditions."

"Those being?" she asked.

"You don't try to steal any of my Pokemon," he stated. She looked at him indignantly.

"I don't want your Pokemon, you can have them! The only Pokemon I want to steal is that Pikachu."

"Number two," he continued. "You stop calling me 'twerp' and call me by my name instead." She rolled her eyes.

"Fine, Drew," she said. "Now if you'd please help me up?" Drew grabbed her by the arm and heaved her out of the bush. She stumbled as she caught her footing before turning to face the coordinator.

"Thanks, tw-" she caught herself just in time. "Thanks, Drew," she amended. He gave her a quick grin.

"No problem, we all need a little help sometime." A lightning stroke flashed, illuminating the area more vividly as the rain began to fall down hard. "Follow me," Drew shouted, motioning into the wood.

"Where are we going?" Jessie asked as they both began to run and try to escape the rain.

"I'd just found a cave and was about to go inside for shelter when I heard you calling," Drew answered. "I couldn't hear what you were saying so I decided to check it out in case you needed help." He pushed a branch aside and ran across a small clearing before reaching the cave, Jessie close behind.

She flopped down gratefully on the dry rock and watched as Drew kindled a fire. "So why are you out here in Kanto?" she asked. Although it was dark, she could still see him flush.

"I came to see a friend," he said carefully. "I think she's nearby in Pallet Town." Jessie nodded knowingly.

"She's nearby?" she teased. Drew flushed again, but the tenseness and raw emotion of rejection he had carried inside for years compelled him to speak out.

"When I went to Johto and she came too, I was happy. I thought she'd finally gotten shot of that Ketchum kid and her nerdy little brother, and would want to travel everywhere with me instead." He sighed. "How wrong was I? I actually did travel with her for a little ways, from Goldenrod City to Ecruteak City. I thought she'd come to Johto because she wanted to be with me. But she didn't. When I told her how I felt about her, she kind of nodded in understanding and then just carried on as usual."

"That must have hurt," Jessie commented.

"It did, and still does. I tried to get closer to her, but I pushed her too far. I woke up one morning, and she'd gone on without me. She didn't even leave me a note telling me where she'd gone. The next time I saw her was at the Grand Festival. I told her then that I was going to go to Sinnoh for the Super Contests. I was sure that she'd follow me there. But as soon as I'd left for Sinnoh, she headed to Frayen instead. I've been looking for her ever since."

"I'd just arrived in Kanto for a trip to Saffron City when I heard about a trainer trying to become a Master by beating Cynthia. I decided to watch it on TV, thinking that the trainer must be pretty good for the match to be an international broadcast. I sure didn't expect it to be Ketchum. I figured that since they're friends, May would be there cheering for him. So I decided not to go to Saffron after all but head to Pallet Town instead, since that's where Ash is from and I figured that he'd celebrate there."

"Do you think you can win her heart?" Jessie asked him. "She is pretty close to that twerp, and I've always thought that they have something going on." Drew flushed angrily.

"Oh, I'll get her all right," he muttered. "She's like putty when she's given a rose. Plus it's been so long since she's seen me that she's sure to realize how much she's missed me when she does."

"I just happen to be going to Pallet Town too," Jessie informed him, but Drew didn't seem to hear.

Ash stared at the Professor in confusion. He wasn't alone; Misty, May, Max, Delia, Norman, and Caroline were also looking puzzled. Gary, Tracey, and Brock all gave a sharp intake of breath.

"Of course... the Pokerus," Gary murmured.

"What's a Pokerus?" May asked.

"Pokerus is a short form for 'Pokemon Virus'," Professor Oak explained. "I began researching it just after you went to Hoenn, Ash. Even though I've been researching it for about six years, I still don't know much about it."

"Why not?" Dawn asked, making everybody jump - nobody had noticed her coming down the stairs. "6 years is a long time to be researching and still not know a whole lot." Gary came to the Professor's defence.

"The trouble is that Pokerus is dangerous for the Pokemon," he said. "When a Pokemon is infected, it makes them grow at an accelerated rate. That will still happen after the infection fades in fact, so that side-effect is very useful for training. The infection itself only lasts for 24 hours. But the Pokerus is very contagious. It can't be spread to humans, but every Pokemon has the potential to contract it."

"I still don't see why it's so dangerous," Dawn said. "You said it's a good thing for the Pokemon, and if it's contagious that can only help all of a trainer's Pokemon grow quickly, right?" Professor Oak shook his head.

"It's only the side-effect of the Pokerus that has ever been useful," he said. "The problem with Pokerus is that it hurts the infected Pokemon. It makes them feral for the 24 hours that they are infected, and therefore exceedingly dangerous to anything that moves, person or Pokemon - although it seems as if it will always attack a Pokemon first. You were there when the Rayquaza destroyed the Colosseum two days ago, Dawn. It was completely unprovoked, and primarily directed at the Pokemon on the field. From what Tracey has said, it seems as if a similar thing happened at the lab. The Rayquaza was attacking the Pokemon, not the lab itself."

"So... when a Pokemon is infected, it basically loses it's mind and goes crazy until the disease wears off?" Dawn asked, beginning to understand.

"That's it in a nutshell," Professor Oak answered. "And that's why we still know very little about it. You see, its very dangerous to examine an infected Pokemon. And it's even more dangerous to deliberately infect a Pokemon with it. Some Pokemon that have weak immune systems aren't able to fight it off in time and die."

"But why would a Rayquaza have caught the disease?" Misty asked. "It usually lives up in the ozone layer, and there aren't any other Pokemon I know of that live that high up."

"The Pokerus isn't actually a disease," Gary answered. "We may not know much about it, but one thing we do know is that the actual Pokerus is a type of micro-organism that attaches to a Pokemon. The infection dies when the micro-organisms do, although the side-effects can last for years. We don't have a clue where it comes from either. For all we know, it could come from space."

"So once the Rayquaza was infected by the disease," Ash said, thinking over the likely sequence of events that they had outlined, "it just attacked the first Pokemon that it saw, which happened to be a Moltres. And of course, a Moltres is a legendary Pokemon too; it wouldn't just be knocked out from an attack, it would be able to fight back."

"That's exactly what must have happened," Tracey said. "When the Rayquaza attacked the Moltres, it retaliated. It managed to land a powerful hit on the Rayquaza's arm. That attack drove it off but just made it even more enraged than it already was. So it attacked the Pokemon at the lab and in the Colosseum with even more power."

"That makes sense," May said, "but the infection will have worn off by now, won't it?"

Latias gave a high keening shriek of pain. She collapsed to the floor, reverted into her natural form, shuddering uncontrollably.

"Latias? Latias!" Ash shouted, knocking his chair over in his hurry to get to her side.

"Get all of the Pokemon outside!" Professor Oak shouted, grabbing a surprised Pikachu by the tail and dragging it away from Latias. "Now!"

"Wha? Why?" Max asked.

"Just do it!" Oak shouted. "Poke Balls included, it can be transmitted directly through those."

"Huh?" Max asked, more confused than ever. Gary grabbed him and pulled him back.

"Do as the Professor says," he snapped. "See that growth above her eyes?" He pointed out a small, lumpy pustule, a nauseating grey-green in colour. "She's contracted the Pokerus."

"How?" Misty asked, wide-eyed at the sight of Latias stretched out on the floor in pain.

"Pika..." Pikachu whispered, looking inside through the window with drooping ears. Every single Pokemon had been released from their Poke Balls while Brock sterilized them to make sure that the Pokerus couldn't infect them through the Poke Balls. They were all in the backyard, wondering just what was going on.

So were Misty, Max, Delia, Dawn, Norman, and Caroline. Ash, May, Brock, Professor Oak and Gary were the only ones in the house with Latias. Now, they were all waiting for news on Latias's condition. At last, Gary appeared at the back door.

"Gramps wants to apologize for shouting, but he's a little busy so I'm here to do it for him," he said. "You should probably know why he was so anxious to get every Pokemon outside too. You see, the Pokerus is extremely contagious. You wouldn't believe how quickly it can be transmitted."

"How could Latias have caught it?" Norman asked. "Was it from the battle against the Rayquaza?"

"No, it's normally only transmitted through direct physical contact," Gary said. "Rayquaza didn't touch Latias, or any of the Pokemon used to battle it. We don't know how she caught it, but I'm sure that Gramps has a theory."

"What was the rush with getting all of the Poke Balls outside if it's only contagious through contact?" Dawn asked, a little indignantly.

"I said that it's normally transmitted that way," Gary corrected her. "Pokerus can leave an infected host, but it dies very quickly if it does. It's something to do with the blood it's absorbed I think; Pokerus that hasn't infected a Pokemon can survive freely until it finds a host. From what the Professor and I know, the furthest a Pokerus can go after it has infected a host is five feet away. If there are any Pokemon or Poke Balls within that radius, they can be infected. That's why we had to get you all out, and why the Poke Balls are all being sterilized."

Ash crouched down near Latias, worry shining through his eyes as he gazed at her outstretched form.

"Here," May said, squatting next to him. "I've brought a blanket to keep her warm." She spread the blanket on top of Latias. At May's touch, Latias's eyes snapped open. She began thrashing around, hissing angrily. A nasty gleam came into her eyes and she lunged, trying to bite the co-ordinator.

"Look out!" Professor Oak shouted as he dragged a shocked May back in the nick of time. Latias's snapping jaws closed shut inches from her arm.

"Latias, calm down," Ash urged, throwing himself in front of the legendary as she reared back again, and wrapping his arms around her neck as he tried to restrain her.

"Ash, get away from her!" May screamed. Ash held on grimly to the enraged Pokemon as it thrashed on the floor, trying to shake her attacker off. She managed to twist her neck towards Ash, rage gleaming in her eyes as she looked at him and prepared to strike.

"Latias, take it easy," he said soothingly. Inexplicably, the fight went out of her as she locked eyes with Ash. The gleam in her eyes vanished and she slowly lowered her head. Ash felt the tenseness leave her neck, and to his great surprise she lay her head in his lap, keeping one eye focused on his face. The Professor gaped.

"That was... unexpected," he said. "Ash, how did you manage to get her to calm down like that? I've never seen anything like it in my life." Ash shrugged, carefully keeping his face turned to Latias.

"For some reason I've always had this strange kind of connection to legendaries," he said. "I don't know why, but they seem to trust me. In all of my travels I've ridden a Lugia, befriended Mewtwo, saved the lives of a Mew and a Celebi, rescued a Manaphy from a pirate, and even managed to convince a Suicune to purify a polluted lake." Professor Oak shook his head in disbelief but looked at Ash with a mixture of respect and awe. He took a tentative step forwards, but Latias swivelled her head and began hissing menacingly again.

"Professor, I think you and May should both go outside," Ash said, taking hold of Latias's head again, calming her down. "It looks like I'm the only one who can get near her right now, and you two could get hurt if you come any closer." Professor Oak shook his head.

"I'm not going anywhere, Ash" he said. "You might need me later. Besides, if I stay around long enough without be threatening, she should acclimatize."

"I'm not leaving either," May added. "She may have tried to attack me but I know that she's not in her right mind. If I can help her, I will." Ash shrugged.

"It's your choice. Don't try to get too close to her though." Professor Oak pulled out a chair from the table, trying to think of a way to change the subject from Latias's infection.

"Tell me, Ash," he said, "have you thought about where you're going next?"

"Well, I was going to stay at the Colosseum as a Frontier Brain," he sighed, "but I can't do that now that its been destroyed. Dawn said that she was going to back to Sinnoh for a while to visit Johanna and tour around the region. She hasn't been back since she competed in the Sinnoh Grand Festival, and I think she wanted to enter a couple more contests there for fun. I've been thinking of going with her. I want to see how the region's coping now that Team Galactic have disbanded, and it'll be great to see Nando again." Latias gave a shudder and he stroked her neck gently.

"You could probably battle the Gyms too," Professor Oak said. "I'm sure that they'd all love to be challenged by you, and there are other Gyms that you haven't been to yet. Each region generally has at least sixteen Gyms, and some of them aren't visited very often because they're so far out of the usual way. I know of some leaders who are just dying for an opponent."

"That sounds great!" Ash said happily. "I'd love to battle all of the other Gyms. It would make the journey a lot more interesting than just visiting Twinleaf Town and coming back to Kanto."

"Ash?" May asked, her cheeks suddenly feeling a little warm. "Do you think it would be okay if I came along too? I've never been to Sinnoh, and I'd like to-"

"That would be great!" Ash beamed. "I'd love it if you come with us, May."

She went pink at the sight of his smile, and turned away quickly. Why do I suddenly feel warm and kind of faint? she wondered silently. She thought about how happy he seemed to be at the idea of travelling with her again, and her stomach gave an unexpected jolt. Of course, she thought in relief. I'm just hungry.

Sorry for not reviewing....... Busy with school, exams, projects, reviews......

I can feel the characters in the fic. You show their emotions well and portray the characters properly. They act new in a way and are not OOC.

Paul, is well, acting the same. Most fics i have read usually show him as a "reborn" person. Lol

Ooooh. Drew's going after May. Wonder if he'll make it in time to snag May......
And Latias getting pokerus was unexpected. Pokerus was unexpected. Good way of showing the virus. Its different and unique.

Butch and Cassidy are gonna be victims or murderers...... I never really liked those two. always seemed a lot less evil/ funny. And the gag with Butch never really got my attention.

Cool. You're adding MORE gyms to the sinnoh region. I wonder who else might be there..... Brock maybe? Drew?

I'll try to review when i can. Please dont stop. Im sure people read. They're just too lazy to review.

She was in pain. So much pain. It seemed like it was her whole world. It was all she could remember. Her vision was dark, almost non-existent. Occasionally a misty, indistinct figure would appear and then back away. She bared her teeth at the blurry grey apparitions, trying to fend off any more onslaughts. A fresh lance of pain skewered down her back and she trembled, crying out. It was all she knew.

Her head hurt abominably. There was a horrible, biting sensation, and she could feel herself being absorbed. She knew, instinctively, that the pain had begun there. Now, it coursed throughout her entire body, leaving her trembling on the ground, exhausted, in agony. She could hear noise; it sounded strange, and yet familiar. It had a steady rhythm to it. She felt exceedingly weak, but she managed to turn her head towards the source.

It was another of those apparitions that occasionally lunged for her. This one seemed different though. There were two auburn orbs in this apparition that radiated calm and protection. She felt slightly safer looking at them, and the pain was a little less too. She focused her eyes on those orbs, not willing to turn away. Another lance shot through her and she trembled, but she kept her gaze on the calming influence of the apparition.

Latias opened her eyes. Her vision was hazy, but the agony she had been in for so long was finally beginning to fade. She trembled as she tried to stand up, but she was too weak. She collapsed heavily, moaning softly. She felt sure that her world was ending. All she knew was pain. Surely if the pain died, she would too.

But no; she could remember beyond the pain now. She remembered the delicious smell of breakfast as she came skipping down the stairs; she remembered the warm embrace of the person she had begun to consider as her trainer as he reunited with her; she remembered flying through the open skies with her brother, her heart filled with happiness.

She turned her head slowly, looking back in the direction of the apparition that had comforted her so much. It was gone. In it's place was the trainer, hunched over in sleep, although his arms still encircled her neck protectively... comfortingly.

A spasm wracked her and she gave a low, flutelike call of pain. She heard footsteps coming from behind her and she turned her head. Although her vision was still blurry and unfocused and the light dark, she recognized the female as being one of her tormentors by her shape. As she drew closer and became more distinct though, Latias began to recognize her. Her hair swung softly from side-to-side as she approached slowly, a bowl of water in her hand. Latias could sense her nervousness and knew that it was because she had tried to attack her the night before. She knew that this girl was a friend though; she remembered being held back by her when she almost fell over the edge of the Colosseum's railing.

The girl was very near her when another painful spasm wracked her body. The girl backed off swiftly, fear in her eyes. Latias almost cried in desperation; she was devastatingly thirsty. She tried to rise again, but collapsed once more. Her vision began to flicker, and she knew that she was about to pass out from dehydration.

Then suddenly the girl was next to her. Latias could still sense fear, but was glad that she was doing her best to keep it contained. She felt the trainer's grip on her neck broken gently, and then the soft touch of the girl as she manoeuvred her head and neck towards the bowl of water. Latias drank the water as quickly as she dared, feeling her irritated throat begin to be soothed by the liquid. When the water was all gone, Latias gave the girl a little flute-like call of thanks and then lay her head in the girl's lap. She felt the girl tense when a spasm shook her frame, but at last she seemed to release that it was an involuntary movement, and that Latias had absolutely no desire to attack her. The girl began to speak, although in Latias's exhausted state she barely understood what was being said. The tone was soothing and relaxing though, and Latias felt her eyes closing in sleep.

Ash awoke, feeling very stiff. He yawned slightly as he turned his head towards the window and saw sunlight beginning to filter in. He looked down towards Latias, and was surprised to see that her eyes were no longer fixed on him. Instead they were closed in slumber, her head on someone else's lap. He turned and was surprised to see May sitting next to him, her eyes shut tightly in a deep sleep. Her head was resting lightly on his shoulder and her bangs covered her eyes; oblivious to what had transpired before sunrise, he wondered briefly why Latias and May were sleeping in those positions.

He watched May sleeping for a few more moments. He was feeling ravenous, but he didn't want to accidentally wake May up by taking away her pillow. Her mouth moved slightly and she gave a little sigh in her sleep. To Ash's immense surprise and slight discomfort, she snuggled into his shoulder a little more securely; her arms shifted slightly until they encircled his neck. Still asleep, May gave another small sigh of comfort and turned her head so that her cheek was pressed against his shoulder more comfortably.

Ash felt his cheeks redden uncontrollably, and a curiously warm sensation began to glow in his heart. He heard a noise and jerked his head towards the window, sincerely hoping that neither Max or Norman were looking in. To his immense relief, the only one at the window was a sleeping Pikachu. He turned his attention towards the table and saw Professor Oak sprawled across two chairs, his head lolling as he snored.

He turned his attention back to May. Hesitantly, he gently put his arm around May's shoulder, holding her to him more securely. She gave another little sigh and Ash felt the feeling flare up inside of him again. His eyes widened as he suddenly recognized what the feeling was. He tried to fight it for a moment, hoping that he was wrong, but to no avail. He sighed and leaned his head over until it rested gently on May's.

A sudden, silent tap on the shoulder startled Ash. He swivelled his head around so fast that he cricked his neck. He began to rub away the sudden pain and saw Brock cringing slightly at the unexpected response. Ash patted the ground on his other side and Brock sat down quietly.

"I fell asleep last night with Latias in my lap," he said. "I wake up and Latias is in May's lap, with May leaning on my shoulder. Not exactly what I expected to see."

"At least you didn't push her off," Brock said with a shrug. Ash just sighed and looked back at the window. They sat in silence for a while, watching the sunlight grow more intense. Far off in the distance they heard the Pallet Town Dodrio let out several long and quavering cries, indicating that it had just turned 7 o'clock.

"Not really," he said. "I know that both of our Bulbasaur are pretty close, but most of the time it just reminds me of our friendship." Brock sighed. This was going to be more difficult than he expected.

"You may not have known this Ash, but most of your Pokemon are male, and most of May's Pokemon are female."

"So?" Ash asked, not really seeing where this was going. Brock sighed again, but resolved to struggle on until he made some kind of sense with Ash.

"You can often tell how a trainer feels just by observing the Pokemon," he said. "Both of your Bulbasaur, both of your Squirtle, your Snorlax and May's Munchlax, as well as Pikachu and May's Eevee have indescribably close bonds. Bonds that go beyond friendship."

Ash began to see where this was going and felt himself grow warm. Brock opened his mouth to speak again, but Ash forestalled him by holding up his hand.

"I think you're right, Brock," he said at last. "May and I haven't really seen each other since I completed the Battle Frontier. We've managed to keep in contact through the videophones though. For a little while now, I've started to feel a little strange about her. When I look at her, I feel a tightening in my chest. Brock, I think that I like her as more than a friend."

Brock was surprised. He hadn't expected Ash to cotton on so quickly. Then he smiled and leaned back slightly.

"Like I said, I've been expecting it for a while," he said. "Not just on your end either." He watched Ash work this out, and grinned slightly at the look that emerged on Ash's face. Ash opened his mouth to speak, but a weak quaver from Latias attracted his complete attention.

She had woken up, and was looking at Ash pleadingly with her red-rimmed eyes. Ash felt May stir on his shoulder and he quickly retracted his arm. She yawned and opened her eyes slowly. In one swift motion, she jerked her head off of his shoulder, whipped her arms away from his neck and scuttled backwards. Her face was beet-red as she looked at Ash and realized that he was awake.

"Morning, May," Ash said cheerily, hoping his real emotions were hidden enough. "Good thing you woke up when you did, I think Latias is a little hungry and tired. I didn't want to accidentally wake you though. You must have been up really late to just fall asleep like that without even getting a proper pillow."

May gaped at him for a moment, her tiredness preventing her from comprehending his meaning. Then she realized that he was covering for her to allow her to keep a little dignity at her surprise upon awakening.

"Uh, yeah, I was up real late," she said slightly fast. Then she gave a little nervous laugh. "Guess I'll get Latias some water since she's so thirsty." She scuttled out of sight into the kitchen, her face still a little pink. Ash shook his head and grinned a little. Unbeknownst to him, a blue-haired girl peeking in at the window had seen it all. She gave a huge grin and thumbs-up to Brock; he smiled and returned the gesture. They had both been right.

Latias was cured. She was very tired and felt extremely weak, but everyone was rejoicing that she'd managed to fight off the Pokerus, although Ash was still at her side and making sure that she was comfortable.

"So, Ash, you're coming back to Sinnoh with me, huh?" Dawn asked. Ash nodded from his position next to Latias on the floor. Seeing that she had fallen asleep, he stood up and walked over to the table for some breakfast.

"Yeah, it's a while since I was last there and Professor Oak's told me that there are other Gyms in the region that I didn't know about before. How cool would that be to win one of every badge in a region?"

"Sounds pretty cool to me," Dawn said. "Of course, I just want to see my Mom and Professor Rowan again."

"What are your plans, Max?" Brock asked.

"I'm going back to Johto," Max said. "I still have three badges to win before I can get into the Silver Conference. How about you, Brock?"

"Well, I was kind of hoping to go back to Sinnoh with Ash and Dawn," Brock said. "There are still a lot of Sinnoh Pokemon I haven't seen, and there are some really good breeders there too who I haven't had a chance to visit yet."

"What are you going to do, May?" Norman asked, slicing his sandwich steak. May looked down at the table for a moment before answering.

"I'm going to Sinnoh too," she said quietly. Norman looked at her in surprise.

"Why?" he asked. "I thought you would keep travelling in Frayen and try to catch some new Pokemon." May shrugged, unwilling to give the real reasons why she didn't want to go back to Frayen. How could she possibly explain that she didn't want to go back to Frayen because that's where Drew was going?

"It should be fun!" Dawn said, breaking the silence. "I can't to see you try some Sinnoh contests, May. Maybe I should enter some too, give you a little competition." It broke the ice, and May laughed.

"I look forward to it, Dawn," she said with a grin. "It's been a while since I had a really good opponent!"

"Why have you gone red, Ash?" Misty asked curiously from across the table. Ash began to choke on his cereal, and Brock had to thump him on the back.

"It's not my fault," Ash protested. "May's laugh made it happen." He went back to his cereal, supremely unaware that everyone's mouth's were wide open at this admission, and that May's face had gone so red that it rivalled her shirt in intensity. Norman raised an eyebrow and Dawn did her best to contain a giggle.

"Hey, Max," Ash said, still not realizing what he'd said, "remember how I promised you a battle one day?" Max's glazed expression of shock at Ash's comment snapped off to be replaced by a look of extreme excitement.

"Oh, I'm sure he does," Caroline replied. "He watched Ash train his Pokemon for a year and a half. If anything, I'd say Ash needs to watch out for Max - he's never seen my boy battle before."

"This will be a three-on-three match," Brock announced. "Substitutions can be made at any time on either side. There is no time limit. Challenged ready?"

"Ready," Max nodded.

"Challenger ready?"

"You bet," Ash grinned.

"Begin!"

"Mareep, it's showtime!" Max shouted.

"Cyndaquil, I choose you!" Ash called.

In twin bursts of light, the electric-type and fire-type emerged. Mareep crackled with electricity as it stared down it's smaller opponent. Cyndaquil gave a little yawn and then charged up it's flame.

"Mareep, lets start things off with a Tackle!" Max commanded.

"Cyndaquil, use Smokescreen and follow up with Flame Wheel," Ash ordered.

Cyndaquil opened it's mouth and sprayed out a large and thick cloud of smoke. The Mareep halted it's headlong charge, unable to see. It could hear a whirring noise from just beyond the smoke cloud. Without waiting for direction, it dashed forwards, hoping to intercept the Cyndaquil. Too late it saw the revolving flames, racing around the Smokescreen at high speed. Max let out a gasp of horror as the flames collided with his Mareep, sending it flying backwards, back arched in pain.

"Mareep is unable to battle," Brock ruled. "Cyndaquil is the winner."

"I'm sorry Mareep. Guess I let you down this time," Max said softly as he recalled his Pokemon.

"Great job, Cyndaquil," Ash smiled. "Looks like our training over the last couple of weeks really worked out! Take a rest now."

"That was some impressive strategy by Ash," Norman said to Caroline. "He used that Smokescreen to defend and attack at the same time." May overhead and couldn't help nodding her agreement.

"Muuuuu," the poison-type burbled as it landed on the path with a spatter. Max gasped and stepped back at the terrifying sight, but on the sidelines Misty, Delia, Professor Oak, and Gary just grinned; they knew that while Muk looked intimidating, she was really the most gentle and affectionate Pokemon of Ash's at all.

Max glared at the Muk and chose the first Pokemon that came to mind. "Grovyle, go!" he shouted.

"Vyle," the grass-type yawned, crossing it's arms as it looked at the Muk with a bored expression. Ash was surprised - surely Max of all people knew that Grovyle was weak against Muk?

"Counter it with Sludge Bomb!" Ash commanded. With a huge roar, Muk shot out a spray of purple spheres. They collided head on with the Bullet Seed attack; most of them collided, exploding on contact, but some on each side found their targets. Muk stretched upwards, absorbing the Bullet Seed harmlessly. Max's Grovyle, overconfident in it's own abilities, decided to take the Sludge Bomb instead of dodging. To his immense shock, the attack did a lot of damage. The Grovyle collapsed to his knees, holding his stomach in pain.

"Grovyle," Max gasped.

"Muk, get close to Grovyle!" Ash shouted.

"Grovyle, get out of there and use Quick Attack!" Max said, panicking now.

As Muk drew closer, the Grovyle managed to get to his feet. He jumped backwards and then shot forwards in a blur of motion. Ash grinned; exactly what he wanted.

"Take the attack, Muk!" he shouted. Muk stretched upwards, and the Grovyle ran directly into her protective layer of sludge. "Now use Body Slam!" Ash shouted. The Grovyle looked up in terror as Muk collapsed in on herself.

"Grovyle, try and use Fury Cutter!" Max shouted. Sections of Muk's body seemed to pulse outwards in a sudden flurry of motion. Grimly, Muk held her ground, and in only a few moments, the struggles subsided.

"Grovyle is unable to battle!" Brock said. "Muk is the winner!"

"Great job, Muk," Ash smiled as the poison-type gave him a squelch hug. "Want to keep battling?"

"Muk muuuuu," Muk nodded, turning back to face Max. Max bit his lip. He was down to his last Pokemon while Ash still had all three of his left. He knew he only had one choice to make.

"Gardevoir, lets go!" he shouted.

"Gaaar," the Gardevoir murmured as it appeared.

"Use Confusion!" Max shouted.

"Fight back with Gunk Shot!" Ash ordered. Muk began to glow blue and was lifted into the air, damage slowly accumulating the longer she was held up. Muk fought for partial control and spat out a stream of putrid juices. The Confusion was only focused on Muk, and Gardevoir was helpless from the retaliation. The fetid liquids splashed on her body and she screamed, inadvertently halting the Confusion as she tried to scrape the Gunk Shot off. Ash saw his opening.

Muk glomped in surprise as she was lifted into the air. Gardevoir took extra care to spin Muk as she threw her backwards. Muk landed at Ash's feet, defeated.

"Muk is unable to battle, Gardevoir is the winner!" Brock ruled.

"Good job, Muk. You did a lot of damage," Ash said as he recalled his Muk with a smile. "Now Cyndaquil, I choose you!"

"Cinda!" the fire-type squeaked as it appeared for the second time.

"Use a Flamethrower, followed by Flame Wheel!" Ash shouted.

A fiery blast of flames launched from Cyndaquil's mouth, expanding over the distance as it rapidly closed on Gardevoir.

"Use Confusion to stop that Flamethrower!" Max shouted. The Gardevoir held out a glowing-blue arm; the Flamethrower streamed off in several different directions. Max laughed at what he saw as a certain victory. The laugh turned into a stutter of shock. Surrounded in circular flames, Cyndaquil was barrelling down the centre of the Flamethrower by using it's Flame Wheel. The attack smashed directly into the Gardevoir, sending her stumbling backwards.

Both Pokemon glared at each other for a few moments, Gardevoir panting heavily. Then, with a shudder, she keeled over forwards.

"Gardevoir is unable to battle! Cyndaquil and Ash are the winners!" Brock announced. Max collapsed on his knees, hugging his exhausted Pokemon before recalling her. He heard footsteps and looked up into Ash's kind eyes.

"Great job, Max. You and your Pokemon really worked hard out there," he said.

"I'll never be as good as you," Max said dejectedly.

"Don't say that," Ash said, griping his shoulder and pulling him to his feet. "Do you think I would have had any chance against Cynthia the day I started out? All it takes is training. I have six more years experience and have competed in five more leagues than you. I know that the battle will be closer next time, just like how you keep getting closer to beating Misty every time you battle her."

"But you'll always be more experienced than me," Max said, seemingly determined to have a bout of self-pity. Ash wouldn't let him.

"The first time that I ever competed in a league, I finished in the top sixteen," he said. "You've already beaten me there by coming in the top ten in your first competition. You'll beat me yet."

With the match over, all of the spectators apart from May and Dawn had gone back into the house. May watched curiously from the sideways as Ash spoke to Max. She couldn't hear what Ash was saying, but Max was beginning to look a lot more happy now than he had at the end of the match.

Thanks for the review, Mayziken. I've written one more chapter, but I'm going to wait before posting it to FF.net; I'll put that chapter and any others that I have written up together as a Christmas present to my readers.

May watched from the grass as Ash and Max walked past her, chatting about their battle. Her gaze followed them into the house and she gave an inaudible sigh when the door closed. Her heart still had that warm feeling but she wasn't entirely sure what it was, or why she had. She felt a tap on her shoulder.

"Hey, May," Dawn smiled. "Feel like having a chat?"

"Why, is something wrong?" she asked.

"Not on my end," Dawn said, "but you kind of look like you have something you want to talk about."

May looked at her newest friend, surprised. She still didn't know Dawn very well, but it seemed that Dawn already knew her well enough to tell when she had something on her mind.

"I guess that I could use a chat," she said. "I'd probably talk to Max or Ash normally, but I don't think Max would understand and Ash...". She stopped abruptly, her face flushing. Not looking at Dawn and not knowing what to do, she began walking around the side of the house into the backyard. With Dawn in step behind her, she headed over to the pond. She pulled aside some reeds and sat down at the water's edge, looking across the water to the tree where she and Ash had talked two nights prior.

"So, why can't you talk to Ash?" Dawn asked innocently. May looked down at the water lapping against the bank. She felt suddenly tongue-tied, and could only shrug. She chanced a glance at the co-ordinator from Sinnoh and was surprised to see a huge grin on her face.

"What?" May demanded.

"Isn't it obvious?" Dawn asked.

"No."

Dawn sighed. "Everytime you look at him, you start to feel strange. Your heart begins to dance whenever he looks at you and smiles. When you see him laughing with another girl, you stomach starts to tie itself in knots. Whenever he does something kind for someone, you grow warm and can't help but think how he's always been there for you."

May looked at her, absolutely thunderstruck. "How... how did you... Is it that obvious?"

Dawn thought carefully for a moment before answering. "Not to everyone," she said evasively.

"I just wish I knew why I start feeling like this," May sighed unhappily, looking back out over the water. Dully, she noticed her Squirtle and Ash's Corphish playing in the shallows on the other side. "I just wish I knew what these feelings are." Dawn looked at her completely surprised. Could it be that May had no idea what her feelings were?

"You don't mean that I... it can't be that... with Ash?" Dawn nodded silently. "But how did you guess?" May asked, almost desperately.

"Brock noticed -" Dawn began, but May gave out a loud groan and cut her off.

"And naturally, he told everyone what he thought," she muttered. Dawn looked at her, surprised.

"You've got me all wrong," she said earnestly. "Brock didn't notice because of you. He noticed because of Ash. When he realized, he asked me to see if I thought..." She trailed off, suddenly realizing what she'd blurted out. May looked at her, mouth agape.

"You mean that he..?"

"Far as I know," Dawn said. She stood up hastily, brushing down her short skirt. "I think I'll go in for lunch," she said, running off to the house quickly.

May watched her run into the house and then turned back to the pond. Her mind was swirling with Dawn's unexpected revelation. Corphish and Squirtle began racing around the pool. They passed by raucously, but May didn't even notice them. She kept replaying the conversation with Dawn in her mind, and all of her recent moments with Ash.

She recalled his comment at breakfast that morning when Misty had asked him why he had turned red. "It's not my fault. May's laugh made me do it," he'd said. At the time she had blushed, but the comment had made her feel happy for a reason she hadn't been able to explain. Until now.

She came back to Earth as Squirtle and Corphish did another lap, splashing her accidentally. She looked down at her wet shirt and sighed. At least this spot in the reeds was safe from view of the house. There was a short patch of grass to sit on, and the reeds kept the place hidden from almost every place in the garden. It was the reason that she'd liked it ever since she'd found it. It gave her a place to think without fear of being disturbed by her brother.

She touched the wet spot on her shirt and gave a slight grimace of disgust at her memories from Johto. She was well aware that most men were attracted to a woman's chest. She was also aware that her chest was slightly bigger than average for girls her age, and that people had been attracted to her for that reason before. Thoughts raced around madly in her head.

Does Ash only like me because of my chest?

Of course he doesn't; I don't think he's ever even seen a girl as anything more than a friend before.

If I'm his first crush, he may be interested because of them. It is what normally gets a guy's attention the first time he ever notices a girl.

Ash isn't like Drew. He doesn't like you because of your chest; he likes you for something more.

You thought the same thing about Drew, and look how that turned out. You remember what happened that night...

Shut up! Shut up! SHUT UP! Ash isn't Drew! He's as different from Drew as Max is from Harley.

"Squirtle?" May looked up and realized that she was shaking from the memories. Her Squirtle was tugging her arm, looking at her with a worried expression.

"I'm alright, Squirtle," she said softly. "Just some bad memories... from Johto." Her Squirtle nodded understandingly. He'd been there and knew what had happened. Squirtle patted her gently on the arm and then dived back into the water to finish the race.

May touched her wet shirt again lightly and lay back on the grass. At least I didn't get splashed much, and it's pretty warm so it should dry quickly. She closed her eyes, her head suddenly buzzing with tiredness. She'd been up later than anyone else last night trying to look after Latias, and she'd woken up pretty early too. The sunlight began to play lightly over her eyelids; she felt suddenly warm and sleepy. Before she had time to take another breath, she'd fallen asleep.

She awoke suddenly. She could tell from the light streaming in that she'd been asleep for a couple of hours. Her stomach rumbled; she was nauseatingly hungry. She stretched and then levitated into the air. She moved over lazily to the table where a buffet had been spread out. In the next room she could hear a crowd of people having a conversation.

Latias looked at the food on the table, wondering how she would be able to eat it. Her arms weren't exactly designed to put food on a plate, or use a fork for that matter.

"Feeling hungry, Latias?" she heard Brock say as he entered the room. She chirped happily at him, nodding her head eagerly. He chuckled. "Here, let me get some for you. What would you like? A bread bun? Rice balls? Fruit salad?"

Latias thought for a moment and then pointed to the bread and the fruit salad. Brock grabbed a small plate and bowl from the table and loaded them both up for her. Latias chirruped happily as he put them on the table and rubbed under his neck to say thank you. Then, without another glance, she tore into the food.

"Glad to see that you're feeling better," Brock said with a smile. He reached out to help himself to some more pasta when the back door slammed open and Dawn burst in. She looked around quickly and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that Brock was the only one in the room.

"You were right, Brock," she said as she walked over to him. "May does like him, but she didn't even realize it."

"How did she figure out it out?" Brock asked. Dawn grinned.

"I just spouted a lot of nonsense and hoped that I was right," she said, and then laughed. "Actually, all I did was describe what I thought those feelings are like. Luckily I was right, and May figured it out in the end."

"So they both like each other," Brock said, thinking. "The question is, how do we get them to realize it?" At this, Dawn scuffed her legs against the ground.

"Actually, I think I let it slip that Ash likes her," she said embarrassed. Brock stared at her.

"That may not be a bad thing in the long run," he said slowly. "May obviously likes Ash, and if she thinks that Ash likes her..."

"They might get together!" Dawn shouted in excitement.

"Who might get together?" Ash asked, entering the room. Dawn jumped in fright and Brock accidentally dropped his plate of pasta. Latias went over to him, chirping excitedly. "How you feeling, Latias?" he asked fondly, stroking her on the back. She pressed up against him, still chirping.

"Whew, good thing Latias was here," Brock whispered to Dawn. She nodded in agreement as he stooped to the floor and began to clean up his dropped pasta.

"No need to worry," she said back with a wink.

"So who were you guys talking about?" Ash asked, focused on them again. "Who might get together?"

Brock looked up at Dawn quickly; she looked down at him nervously. "Uhh, ummm..." he began.

"You and Latias," Dawn blurted, lying through her teeth. "You both seem to be really good friends, and she's really powerful. I was just saying to Brock how great it would be if you two were together."

Brock looked at her and groaned inwardly, burying his face in his hands. He'd never heard anything more absurd than someone capturing a legendary Pokemon. Noland befriending Articuno was one thing, but even Brandon's Regirock, Regice, and Registeel weren't really legendary; just extremely rare. He dreaded to think how Latias was going to react. He waited with closed eyes and bated breath.

"Latias... do you really want to come along with me?" he heard Ash ask. Brock cracked open an eye just in time to see Latias stare at him, completely open-mouthed.

This can't be good, he thought. Then, to his complete incredulity, Latias's shocked stare turned into the biggest smile he'd ever seen. She nodded her head eagerly before transforming into her human shape. She gave Ash a huge hug before reverting back into her normal form.

Brock was surprised to feel himself breathe again; he hadn't realized he was holding it in. He turned to Dawn and saw that she was shaking in relief.

"That was the worst lie I have ever heard in my life," he whispered. Dawn smiled back weakly.

Ash sighed and stretched out against the tree comfortably. He had travelled through four regions and seen countless night skies, but this spot in the garden was his absolute favourite place to look at the stars. He looked upwards and saw that it had clouded over. He heard a hint of thunder in the air, and realized that there wouldn't be any star-watching tonight. Oh well, he thought. He gave another contented sigh and looked back out over the pond.

"Ash?"

He started. He hadn't heard her walking towards him. He turned and found himself looking into May's dazzling sapphire eyes.

"Hey, May, what's up?" he asked. She sat down next to him and looked over the pond too. A light breeze ruffled past them, and Ash couldn't help noticing how her hair fluttered. His face tinged scarlet and he quickly turned away.

"Not a whole lot, really," she said softly. "Just thinking."

"Mind if I ask what about?" Ash asked.

"Just... stuff," she said, watching the ripples.

Ash sighed and leaned back. He knew that it was no good trying to probe May if she didn't feel comfortable talking at the moment; she'd tell him when she was ready. Then he remembered something. He reached around the side of the tree to where he'd strewn his travel pack and began to rummage in it.

May turned her head slightly to look at him. It was true that she was thinking about a lot of things, but Ash hadn't tried to pry. She felt exceedingly glad. It's the mark of a true friend that he'll wait until I'm ready to tell, she thought. She was surprised when Ash suddenly turned to her, holding a canister in his hands.

"Here, May. This is for you," he said. She took it with trembling hands.

"Ash, what is this?" she asked. He leaned over and pressed a small red button at the base of the canister. The opaque covering vanished, leaving the glass through which May could see a red-orange egg glinting sully in the moonlight. May began to feel her eyes glistening with tears.

"Ash... is this..?"

"It's an egg from a Charizard," he said. "Liza found it with Charla in the Charicific Valley, and she gave it to me. She thinks that it could be from my Charizard."

"Ash..." she whispered softly. To his complete surprise, she threw her arms around him and began sobbing into his shoulder.

"Wha?" he managed to stutter out. She continued to cry against him. Uncomfortably aware of her chest pressing against him, he patted her awkwardly on the back for a few moments. A horrible feeling of repetitiveness rose up inside him, but he didn't know what else to do. At last, May stopped and broke away from him.

"Ash, this means more to me than you realize," she whispered.

"Why?" he asked, confused. She gave him a truly radiant smile; he felt captivated by her gaze and couldn't turn away.

"Because it's a gift from you," she said. He felt his face burn, and he finally managed to look down.

"It's just a Pokemon egg," he muttered, completely embarrassed. "I just thought you'd like it since I have Charizard, and you already have a Bulbasaur and a Squirtle."

She smiled at him, even though he wasn't looking at her. He really is a nice guy, she thought. I know he'd never hurt me like Drew did.

A loud clap of thunder broke her train of thought and a rain drop landed squarely on her nose. She and Ash both leapt to their feet. "Come on, lets gets inside," Ash shouted, grabbing her hand and running to the house.

Panting, they managed to make it inside before the downpour really started. May looked down.

"Umm, Ash?"

"Yeah?"

"Could you let go of my hand, please?" she asked. He let go with a start.

"Sorry," he said sheepishly. "I didn't even realize." May laughed and then dashed upstairs, holding the canister carefully.

"Race you to bed," she called down. "We have an early start tomorrow!"

May's eyes snapped open. She glanced around the dark room for a few moments before she found the digital clock. She gave a slight groan when she saw the time: 5:42. She pounded her pillow once in frustration. It was the fourth time she'd woken up that night.

She closed her eyes and tried to fall asleep again. She rolled over. She punched her pillow back into shape and tried sleeping on the other side. She opened her eyes and looked at the clock again: 6:03. With a resigned groan she sat up and began looking for her toothbrush and a towel. It didn't look as if she'd fall asleep again.

Might as well get ready for the trip, she thought. No point in just waiting for everyone else to get up and then end up clogging the bathroom. She glanced over at Dawn snoring lightly on the bed and shook her head. She's had that bed every night.

She grabbed her clothes and crept out the door into the hallway, taking care not to accidentally trip over Misty on her way out. She shut the door softly and tiptoed down the hallway towards the bathroom. She paused at the landing, surprised to see a light on downstairs. Her heart began to pound as she heard movement. I hope it isn't a burglar, she thought.

Still holding her clothes and towel in one arm, she fumbled quickly with the Poke Balls on the belt that was always attached to her pants. She found the one she wanted and released the Pokemon inside quickly, hoping that whoever was downstairs wouldn't hear the Ball opening.

"Vui?" her Eevee asked.

"There's someone downstairs," May whispered quietly. "I think it might be a burglar. I'll need your help if it is."

"Eievui," her Pokemon nodded. Slowly, May began to creep down the stairs. Her hands felt suddenly sticky with trepidation and she noticed that she was shaking a little. Pausing, she took a couple of deep breaths and then nodded, steeling herself.

She began to quietly walk down the last few steps, Eevee at her heels. She stopped at the foot and slowly peeked her head around the corner to see who was in the house.

"I'm sorry I startled you, May," Professor Oak chuckled. "I've gotten up early every morning to look after the Pokemon for so long now that it's just become a habit."

"I thought that you were a robber," she said faintly, holding the mug of tea the Professor had made for her. Ash laughed from the other side of the table.

"Only you could mistake Professor Oak for a thief, May" he chuckled.

"And what are you doing up so early?" May asked him accusingly. Ash shrugged.

"The same as you; I couldn't sleep either. I came down only a little while before you did and saw that Professor Oak was already awake, and looking really bored."

"I haven't had anything to do since my lab burned down," the Professor explained. "I'm so used to working as soon as I get up that it's quite a shock to just sit around doing nothing for a couple of hours. The only company I've normally got this early is Noctowl."

"Professor Oak was just telling me about his theory on why Latias was infected with Pokerus," Ash said to May. The Professor nodded.

"You see, May, everything on this planet is connected. Humans and Pokemon eat, drink, and interact with each other. When we die our bodies are returned to the earth so that new plants can grow and feed others. I hate to sound cliché, but the simplest name for it is the Circle of Life. Are you following me?" May nodded; it seemed pretty straightforward so far.

"Good. Now, while everything on the planet may be connected to everything else, living creatures are more closely linked to other living creatures than, say, a rock. And it divides again; humans connect on deeper levels to each other than to Pokemon, and vice versa. But then in Pokemon it divides again; a Ralts will connect more easily to other Psychic Pokemon than to a Ground type; within the Psychic grouping, it is closer to those in it's own evolutionary line than to Hypno. And of course, a Ralts will always connect more easily to another Ralts than to a Kirlia. Understand?"

"I think so," May said slowly. "It makes sense, but I can't quite see where you're going with it."

"It's because there is one group of Pokemon where these connections don't work," the Professor said. "This group of Pokemon is unique - in this group there are over 30 different species of Pokemon, and they represent nearly every type. Some of them are ancient in origin, so old that they are considered myths. Others are so rare that they are nearly one of a kind."

"Legendary Pokemon," Ash supplied.

"Exactly," Professor Oak nodded. "All of them are rare, and most are impossible to capture - although there are a few exceptions. They are so valuable that some people spend all of their lives searching, just to catch a brief glimpse of one; your uncle spent most of his life trying to catch sight of a Moltres, Ash."

"I still don't see what this has to do with Latias and the Pokerus," May said, puzzled.

"Legendary Pokemon are intimately connected with one other; at all times they can sense the presence of other legendary Pokemon, as well as how they are feeling. When the collector Lawrence III tried to capture the legendary birds in the Orange Islands, they could sense what was happening. When Zapdos felt Moltres's absence, it claimed Fire Island as it's own. The guardian Lugia sensed Moltres's capture and went to try and free the legendary Pokemon.

"Why did Suicune suddenly appear to try and help Celebi when it was caught and corrupted? How did Rayquaza know that the Deoxys was hiding in LaRousse City; in fact, how did the Deoxys know that the core of another Deoxys was being kept there? Why did Rayquaza suddenly appear over the stadium, and attack only Latias? It all boils down to the connection that legendary Pokemon share with one another."

"So... you're saying that you think it was this connection between Rayquaza and Latias that passed on the Pokerus?" May asked.

"It's the only thing that makes sense," Professor Oak replied. "Legendaries are so closely linked that they don't need physical contact to pass on the Pokerus." He sighed and looked towards the window and the dark world beyond. "Unfortunately, if I'm right, it means that other legendaries could also be infected. I have no idea how close they'd need to be to pass on the disease through their connection, but if it's any great distance than we could be looking at an epidemic."

"Now you'll be sure to look after yourself, won't you?" Delia asked as she fussed over Ash.

"Of course I will," he said, trying to wave her away as she attacked his head with a comb.

"You will treat all of your Pokemon equally, won't you?" Professor Oak asked, stepping in front of Delia. "You've never had so many Pokemon on your team at once while you travel, and they'll all need extra-special care. It's one of the reasons why most trainers are only allowed to carry six at a time."

"Don't worry, Professor," Ash said with a smile. "I'll be sure to look after them all. I'm only taking one of my Tauros though; I'll leave the rest here to help rebuild the lab."

"Thank you, Ash, they'll do wonders I'm sure. Now, I have something for you, May," he said, moving to the side and allowing Delia to attack Ash's hair again.

"For me?" she asked, surprised.

"Yes. You haven't caught anywhere near as many Pokemon as Ash, but you've proven yourself to be an exceptional trainer who takes amazing care of their Pokemon. So, I'd like to give you this." He placed an ordinary PokeDex in her hands.

"A PokeDex?" she asked, confused.

"Yes and no," he said. "You see, a PokeDex isn't just a protable encyclopedia, it's also your ID. It can tell anyone who you are, what you've captured, what Pokemon are on your team at the moment, and the number of Pokemon you're allowed to carry. This is called an Ex-Dex. It stands for "Expanded PokeDex, and it's the same thing that Ash got when he became a Frontier Brain."

"You mean, I can carry more than six Pokemon?" she asked. Professor Oak nodded.

"That's right," he said. "I know that you'll treat all of them well, so this is my gift to you."

"Thank you," she whispered. "I really appreciate this."

"We know," Norman laughed, stepping forward. He wrapped his arms around her daughter and hugged her tightly. "Travel safe," he said.

"We'll miss you, but we'll be waiting at home when you come back," Caroline added as she joined the hug. May gently detached herself from the two.

"We'd better get going now," she said. "Bye Mom, Dad. I'll see you soon, Max. Good luck in Johto!"

"Right back at you," Max said with a grin.

Waving backwards at the crowd of friends and family, Ash, May, Brock, Dawn, and Pikachu began to walk in the direction of Viridian City. A light breeze ruffled the grass around them and helped to cool them momentarily from the delicious warmth of the sun.

Ash stopped at the top of the hill closest to Pallet and turned momentarily, looking back at the town. His house was no longer visible, but the destroyed lab was plain to see. He stretched and looked up at the sun before turning back to his friends.

"Looks like we're finally travelling again," he said with a grin.

A clawed hand came rocketing out of the bushes and snapped itself around Pikachu.

"Are you still after Pikachu?" May asked in amazement as Jessie stepped out of the bushes. "I'd have thought that after ten years of failure you'd have given up."

"Think again, twerp," she smirked. "Looks like I've got Pikachu in the bag. Soon as I get back to headquarters I can use a Dark Ball and give your yellow rat to the boss!"

"I'm not going to let that happen!" Ash shouted. "Heracro-"

"Seviper, Poison Tail!" Jessie shouted. Her Seviper burst from the Poke Ball, tail glowing a menacing purple. It held it's tail at Pikachu's throat; Pikachu instantly stopped struggling. From the trees behind them, a figure burst out and wrapped his arms securely around May, pinning her arms tightly to her sides. She screamed in fright as he dragged her backwards a few paces.

Ash turned again, the Poke Ball in his hand. He looked in dismay as his eyes met Drew's.

"Well, this is a problem, isn't it," Jessie said with a toying smile. "The girl or the Pokemon? Who are you going to save?"

"Drew won't hurt May," Ash said confidently. "He's just keeping her safe. All I need to do is take out your Seviper." Drew snorted and Jessie giggled.

"Riiight, Drew won't hurt May," she said with a raised eyebrow. "How can you be so sure he won't try something else?"

"Get off me!" May screamed, trying to stamp on Drew's feet.

"If you go for the girl, say goodbye to your Pikachu," Jessie said menacingly, nodding to Seviper - the Poison Tail was flicked an inch closer and Pikachu strained to move it's neck away.

"If you try to save Pikachu, you can forget about travelling with May," Drew added. Ash stood in the centre, his mind torn as he turned from May to Pikachu, and back to May again.

"Looks like we've won this one, twerps," Jessie said with a smile, beginning to edge around in a circle until she stood next to Drew. "We've both got what we wanted. Come on Drew, let's go."

"Vine Whip!" a voice shouted. Ash twisted as several vines shot past him, much thicker than those on his Bulbasaur and Bayleef. One of the vines shot into the extendable arm that Jessie was holding, snapping it in two and causing it to spark dangerously; a second smashed into Seviper's head at full force, knocking it out cold. A second pair wrapped around May and shot into Drew. He doubled over in pain and let go of May, who was quickly reeled in.

"Why you..." Drew growled as he got to his feet, clutching his stomach. "Flygon, come on out!" With a roar, his Pokemon appeared.

"Heracross, I choose you!" Ash shouted, finally able to send out his Pokemon.

"Flygon, use Flamethrower!" Drew yelled.

"Venusaur, counter with Solarbeam!" the voice commanded.

"Heracross, Megahorn!" Ash shouted.

The Flamethrower and Solarbeam collided, causing an explosion. Heracross burst through the smoke with a glowing horn and smashed into Flygon's unprotected belly. The Pokemon gasped and freefell to earth at the intensity of the attack.

"Flygon!" Drew gasped. He recalled his Pokemon, gave the group a dirty look, and ran back into the forest. Ash, May, Brock, Dawn, and Pikachu all turned to Jessie, who stood seemingly rooted on the spot, and still holding the sparking arm.

"Ummm," she managed to squeak out before the power shortage in the arm overloaded. It exploded, and with a scream, Jessie was launched high into the air.

"Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again," Ash said softly before turning to see the Venusaur and it's owner approaching. She wore a sleeveless blue shirt with matching socks and a red skirt. Her long brown hair cascaded down to the small of her back, and was held down in places by the strap of the yellow bag she carried over one shoulder. Her green eyes sparkled underneath a brimmed white hat.

"Good to see you again, Ash," she said with a playful smile on her face. "I was wondering if I'd see you before you left on another journey again. Good thing I came after you; it looks like you were in quite the dilemma."

"Rey," Ash said, stepping forward with a huge grin. "Have you started training again?" May, Brock, and Dawn all stood and watched in shock as both Rey and Ash broke into laughter and embraced.

A cold pit formed in May's stomach and began to spread upwards. Her eyes began to glisten as she held back tears and stepped backwards. With a sob, she turned and ran down the path, holding an arm to her eyes.

"I'll go after her," Dawn said, and quickly followed May, with Pikachu close behind.

Pain coursed throughout his body again, but this time he knew that it was not external. This time, he knew that it came from within. A cloud seemed to hang heavily directly over his head as delusional images swam before his mind. He clasped a three-fingered hand to his heart and did his best to shut out the images, but still they came.

They know, he thought. Somehow they know. They've found me here, and now they're trying to incapacitate me, make me helpless so they can capture me! I've been here too long, I need to go on to Vermillion City. I've... Nyyaaarrrrhhh!!!

Throughout Cerulean City, people stopped and stared, puzzled and a little afraid. They had all heard the scream.

Spread-eagled on a rooftop, the caped figure lay immobile and unconscious; utterly helpless.

For those of you wondering who Rey is, she's partly an OC and partly not. As some of you might have guessed from the description, she's based on the female trainer of FireRed/LeafGreen (and in this story, one of the two other trainers who started from Pallet with Gary and Ash; remember those two?)

James looked longingly at the apple trees on the side of the road. He glanced up and saw Paul walking resolutely onwards, hands in his pocket, completely silent. He sighed and trudged on after him, stomach rumbling.

Travelling with Paul hadn't exactly been a fun experience. They had walked almost non-stop, resting only infrequently. On the rare occasions when they did stop, Paul battled his Pokemon against each other relentlessly. It had been a real shock to James the first time he saw a five-on-one battle.

"We're almost there," Paul said, breaking the long silence that had stretched between them at last. James hurried up to where Paul was standing and realized that he had only been talking into his Poketch. He saw Paul glance back at him and then turn back, lowering his voice and covering his mouth with his hand. He spoke for a few more moments, nodded once and then deftly shut the lid.

"My father is going to meet us here," Paul said, sitting down on a fallen log.

"Eh... why not just keep on going if that's where we're heading?" James asked.

"Okay," James muttered. Then his expression brightened as an idea struck him. "Come on out," he called, throwing four Poke Balls into the air. In a blaze of brilliant red light, Cacnea, Carnivine, Mime Jr, and Fearow appeared. He smiled happily as they stretched in midair. The smile quickly turned into a little shriek of horror and pain as Cacnea and Carnivine enveloped him fondly in a tight hug.

"Pathetic," Paul snorted, turning to look into the forest.

"What's so pathetic about letting out your Pokemon for a little fresh air?" James asked, feeling slightly abashed for some strange reason.

"You mean that you actually want them to enjoy themselves?" Paul asked.

"Well yeah, why wouldn't I?"

"Because Pokemon are just tools. They aren't supposed to enjoy themselves,; their only purpose is to be used in battle. You let them have fun, and they'll start thinking you're all friends."

"But we are," James protested. Paul snorted again.

"It's pathetic," he repeated. "Friendship makes a Pokemon weaker. If they think that you'll forgive them when you lose a battle, they'll just give up as soon as they start getting hurt."

"That's not true!" James shouted, leaping up in anger. Paul looked at him coldly.

"Oh really? Then tell me; when was the last time you and your 'friends' won a battle?"

James looked at him, a sinking feeling in his chest. Perhaps Paul was right. It had been a long time since he'd won a battle. Several years in fact.

"You see?" Paul said softly. "Being friends with a Pokemon just holds you back. You can only unleash their full power if you treat them like the inferior creatures they are." He turned and looked back into the forest. "Good, he's arrived."

James looked and started. Ringed in the trees around them were a group of people dressed in black, a large red 'R' splashed across their chests. A tall, broad-shouldered man dressed in an orange suit stepped forward. His gaze rested on James for a moment and a contemptuous smile curled across his face.

"Good work, Paul," he said, turning to the lavender-haired trainer. "It looks as if Cassidy and Butch have failed since you've brought him... alive." Paul shrugged.

"He was stuck in a tree and being attacked by a flock of Fearow when I found him. Apparently he was in the Colosseum with the others when a Hyper Beam knocked them all off in different directions. It could be that your mercenaries are still trailing the other two. I figured it was best if I brought him back for you to deal with personally, father."

"T-tell me what, s-sir?" James stammered. Giovanni took a step forward and kneeled so that he was at James's level.

"My dear, dear, James," he said softly, almost kindly. "You've cost our organization a pretty penny over the years; too much for so little result. You're expendable. I recently sent out a Rocket duo to try and find your little trio. Their sole orders were to kill you on the spot." James blanched, and Giovanni reached out to clasp his shoulder. "But now that you're here..." he whispered.

He whirled and thrust James away from him; the white-garbed Team Rocket member stumbled backwards and was grabbed by several of the grunts.

"Take him back to headquarters," Giovanni snapped. "I'm not in the mood to deal with him now. Put him in Silver's cell. I'll finish with what's left of him later. Seize his Pokemon and store them away. Paul, I want to see you in my office the moment we get back. Move!"

In minutes, the forest was still and silent. There was no sign of the confrontation that had just occurred aside from a small Fearow which perched hidden in a tree, it's tears streaming to earth.

"Not including our first specimen we have now obtained a Raikou, Suicune, Regice, and Uxie, not forgetting the Rayquaza that terrorized Southern Kanto," Giovanni told his son, reclining slightly in his chair. Paul nodded slowly.

"Quite the accomplishment," he drawled, "especially with capturing that Rayquaza. But forgive me; you need one specimen of every legendary Pokemon, and yet Latios is dead - your henchwomen saw to that." A crooked smile crossed Giovanni's lips.

"Oh, I imagine that Annie and Oakley are quite relieved to still be incarcerated at the moment," he said. "Their mission was simple: capture Latios and Latias. I still do not understand why they chose to try and steal a trinket and kill Latios instead of the simple recovery that I outlined for them. It is of no importance, though. There are other Latios in the wild, and Professor Namba has recently discovered their migration routes. We should soon have one under our possession, enlarging our collection."

"And as more legendaries are captured, brought here, and infected, the rest will feel a stronger and stronger urge to come and free their brethren, because of their connection to one another" Paul stated, knowing what his father had planned to say next.

"Exactly," Giovanni said., "and once we have one of every species collected here we will be able to call the ultimate Pokemon back to this reality. Now, I have a new mission for you. I need you to go to Hoenn. We have uncovered evidence that Celebi is currently residing in Petalburg Forest; I want you to capture it."

"We're talking about a legendary Pokemon," Paul said. "With the exception of Brandon's weakling Regirock, Regice, and Registeel, none have ever been captured. I don't think it's possible to poach a Pokemon with the kind of hidden strength that Celebi has." Giovanni stood and looked out of the window.

"Several years ago, we almost caught Celebi," he said. "I sent out our number-one field specialist at the time; Vicious. He collaborated with Namba to produce one of the ultimate Poke Balls. It captures any Pokemon, even those belonging to other trainers, without fail." He turned and threw a black sphere at Paul, who caught it in reflex.

"A Dark Ball," Paul muttered, examining it closely. Giovanni nodded.

"A Dark Ball," he acknowledged. "Use this to capture Celebi. Take someone with you, I don't care who. Just bring me back Celebi as quickly as possible. Stop by in Johto on the way back; I need you to pay a visit to Kurt of Azalea Town. He has something that I require for our purpose."

Paul nodded silently and watched as his father sat and faced the window again, understanding that he was dismissed. Stiffly, he turned and left his father's office. He walked down the hall and quickly descended down a flight of stairs. He knew exactly who to take with him.

James shrank back as far as he could, doing his best to avoid meeting the fiery gaze of his cell-mate who sat on the floor opposite him.

"I've been waiting a long time to get my hands on a Rocket," the man growled. James gulped nervously. "I don't know even know why I'm in here; perhaps you can shed some light on the mystery?" he continued.

"I'm afraid I can't," James said, licking his dry lips nervously. "All I know is that they're holding me here until they're ready to kill me."

"Probably hoping that I'll do the job for them," the man chuckled darkly, his long steely-grey hair swinging as he got to his feet, cracking his knuckles.

"A-are you going to?" James asked almost inaudibly.

"Nah, I'm no murderer. Although I sure would like a shot at that Giovanni and that Namba! If I still had my Salamence..."

"You mean that you don't?" James blurted out.

"What kind of mud do you have for brains, half-pint?" the man demanded. "You think your boss is foolish enough to put me in here with a Pokemon? My Salamence or Chikorita could break me outta here with no problem. Huh, I don't even know how they managed to catch me."

"Is your name Silver, by any chance?" James asked hesitantly.

"Sure is," the man drawled. "Silver's my name, and Pokemon is the game. My goal is to have a real battle with Moltres one day; without being interrupted by Team Rocket."

James gulped as the man took several strides towards him, grabbed him by the collar, and pinned him up against the wall.

"I don't know what you guys have against me, but I sure ain't impressed," he breathed. "I want to know why I'm in here, and I want to know now!"

"Put him down, Silver," a cold voice drawled. Silver half-turned, still holding James by the shirt.

"He is being given his last chance at life," Paul said flatly. "He's coming with me on a special mission. Now put him down. Don't make me use my Electivire."

"Tough kid," Silver taunted, "having to hide behind your Pokemon. Tell you what, why don't you come in here without any Pokemon and try to get him away from me."

"I don't play that way," Paul said, tossing a Poke Ball into the air and releasing his Electivire. "Thunderbolt," he ordered. Silver screamed as the volts coursed through his system, forcing him to drop a terrified James to the ground. Paul watched him emotionlessly, allowing the attack to continue for a good deal longer than was necessary. At last he raised his arm, and the Thunderbolt stopped. Silver slumped to the floor, groaning slightly.

"Out," he ordered James.

"I... I don't understand," James murmured as he crawled out of the cell, followed closely by Electivire.

"I told you, you've got one last chance to save your life," Paul said impatiently as he slammed the cell door shut and took out the key. "We're going to Hoenn. I want to be back in forty-eight hours, so you'd better not slow me up."

"Hoenn?" James asked. "But, what about my Pokemon?"

"You can take your Cacnea," Paul said. "The rest stay here. Now move."

"How do I know I can trust you?" James asked shrewdly. "You've already lied to me once, about the six-course meal." Paul rolled his eyes, whirled and grabbed him by the shoulder. They stared at each other for a moment.

"You have to trust me because you'll die if you don't," Paul hissed. "If you don't want to die, then follow me." He strode off quickly, leaving James rooted to the spot in bewilderment.

In the cell, Silver regained consciousness. He let out a moan of pain as static electricity crackled across his body. He struggled to his feet and leaned heavily against an iron wall. He cursed in surprise as the wall swung outwards, sending him crashing to the ground. Dazed, he looked up and realized that he was in the hallway. He scrambled to his feet and examined the wall closely.

"That kid," he whispered. "He forgot to lock the door!" He let out a laugh and cracked his knuckles. "This is going to be fun," he grinned. "Let's see how Team Rocket handles this!"

As ever, please review! If you have any questions feel free to ask them, and I'll answer next time around. I'd also like to point out that this chapter was written long before Cacnea was given to Gardenia.

Great chapter! I wouldn't have expected Paul to be Giovanni's son, see Silver, LG/FR girl and a REAL interpretation of Paul. And May's jealous but who blames her? Her "crush" just hugged another girl in front of her. Dumb Ash.

Sorry I don't have time for a proper review but good chapter as usual. Keep it up.

May squinted slightly as the bright sunlight washed over her face, almost seeming to tickle her eyelids. Grumbling sleepily, she rolled over. She stretched, and bolted back her hand as she felt it touch something warm and soft. Panicking, she moved as away from the unknown entity as fast as she could while her lower torso was still entangled in a sleeping bag.

She stared at the sleeping bag that had lain next to hers in early-morning confusion. Then, with a slight motion, Drew's head appeared from beneath the cover. She relaxed as the previous days events came back to her. She had been on her way to Ecruteak City when she'd met Drew training his new Furret for the next contest. It had been getting dark, so they both decided to camp where they were, and travel to the next contest together.

May looked at him and smiled. It would certainly be nice to have someone to travel with again. She been going solo for so long, that she was actually quite lonely for some human company. Heck, she was so desperate for another person to talk too that she wouldn't even mind if Max showed up out of nowhere and started to bug here.

She cast her eyes downward, feeling sad at the thought of her brother. Here she was in Johto, while he was on his own journey in Hoenn. She wondered briefly what Pokemon he'd caught, and how many badges he'd won so far. She gave a little sigh - she hadn't been able to get in touch with him since she'd left for Johto.

Thinking of Max, she couldn't help remembering her other friends. She thought briefly of Brock, wondering if he was still at the Pewter Gym now or if he'd gone on after -

She closed her eyes, shaking her head to lose the thought that had been dangerously close to breaking through again. Ever since their group had split up, she couldn't even think his name without feeling a twinge of pain. And thinking about him brought a world of loss.

"I don't know what's wrong with me," she muttered to herself. "I can think of Max and Brock, so why is it that everytime I think of... of him, I start feeling so depressed?"

"Hmm? Thinking about me?" she heard Drew ask. She snapped her head upright, pink tinges in her cheeks.

"No, no, of course not, why would I be thinking of you?" May asked, laughing nervously as she waved a hand in dismissal. Drew shrugged.

"I dunno, but you were thinking about some guy and I figured there was as much a chance of it being me as the next guy."

"Eavesdropper," May muttered. Drew laughed and stood up, stretching in the sunlight.

"Come on," he said, "lets start breakfast. If we eat quickly enough, we could make it to Ecruteak by nightfall."

"Good luck with getting it started," Drew snorted. "Remember the trouble you had last night? It's a wonder you ever had a fire when you travelled with Max, Brock, and-"

"Brock normally lit the fire, he was good at those kinds of things," May cut in quickly. "I'll get it started though, don't you worry about that."

"Sure, I'd like to see you try it," Drew bantered humourously. "Looks like we'll be having cold bread instead of toast."

May grinned as he turned and began to rummage in his bag for the food. Making sure that he couldn't see her, she quietly called out a Pokemon, set up a tepee of sticks, and whispered her instructions. Drew turned and gaped at the hot fire that sat between them.

"Hey, how'd you make a fire so big so quickly? How'd you even get it lit?"

"Trade secret," May smiled, enjoying his confusion. Drew stared at her, completely astonished, and May laughed at his amazement. Then Drew caught sight of the Blaziken standing behind her.

"Hey, that's not fair! You used your Pokemon to start it!" Drew protested.

"Whatever works," May said, smiling sweetly. "Now, I think you said you were going to cook breakfast?"

Muttering darkly to himself, Drew put a few slices of bread in a frying pan and began to cook them over the fire. May smiled inwardly as she sat back down on her sleeping bag and watched him do all of the work.

May was jolted out of her memory by the sound of Dawn gasping as she drew closer to the rock where May sat. She stood there a moment, holding a hand to her chest as she took ragged breaths before flopping down next to May.

"Boy, you can really run," Dawn gasped. May didn't respond.

"Why'd you run off like that, May?" Dawn asked. "Didn't you want to meet Rey? She seems like a really nice person."

"Oh she does, does she?" May asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Let me ask you something, Dawn. The other day, you let it slip that Ash likes me after I tell you that I like him. So what happens? He gives a big hug to this girl who just comes waltzing up when he's never even given me a little hug, the girl he's supposed to like. So what does that tell you, Dawn?"

Dawn looked at her fellow coordinator who glanced away, refusing to meet her eyes. Still, Dawn had seen the tears beginning to trickle down her cheeks.

"I think you've got it all wrong, May," she said softly. "Ash doesn't like Rey in that way at all. They're just childhood friends who were separated by their journeys. That hug he gave her was just an 'its-great-to-see-you-I-haven't-seen-you-in-years-how-have-you-been' hug, not an 'I love you' hug."

"Then why hasn't he ever given me a hug, when we've been separated like that?" May asked, her voice fluctuating slightly as she tried desperately not to cry. Dawn sighed.

"I don't know him as well as you, or Brock do, May," she said. "But if I what Brock told me is right, Ash lost all contact with her. He hasn't spoken to her since the day before he started his Pokemon journey, and that was ten years ago. He hasn't even been able to just say "hi" over the videophone. At least you two were able to keep in touch." She stood up and brushed a little dust off her skirt.

"I'm going to go back," she said. "I think you probably should, too. Rey and her Venusaur did save you after all; you should at least say thank you." May nodded quietly and spoke almost inaudibly.

May waited until she heard her footsteps fade, and then released all of the raw emotion that was pent up inside of her. The wrenching feeling that she had unfairly judged Ash; the guilt that she hated Rey before she'd even said one word to her; her memories of travelling with Drew in Johto.

"What went wrong?" she whispered to herself. "What changed him from a friend to a monster?"

She sat there for what seemed to be a long time until she had cried all of her emotion out. Then, wiping her face with her sleeve, she got unsteadily to her feet and began walking back to her friends.

A couple of chapters ago, Drew seemed like a real villian as he tried to kidnap May. Most of you probably thought that was just typical Contestship bashing from an Advanceshipping fan, especially since Drew is typically the main antagonist in ADV ships.

You were dead wrong.

This chapter delivered a little bit of a backstory; quite the contrast in character compared to two chapters ago, eh? I'm not going to go into details now (for obvious reasons), but when Chapter 24 is uploaded more of Drew's and May's history in Johto will be revealed, with a lot more to follow afterwards. It's gonna be a real tearjerker...

"If she'd only gotten a little closer to the trees. We could have grabbed her!" Cassidy complained to Butch. He peered nervously out from behind the bushes and motioned for her to lower her voice before answering.

"At least we know that our guess was right; she is following those kids. All we have to do is follow them, and she'll turn up eventually."

"I wonder where James and that Meowth have gone," Cassidy frowned. "It's weird that she was working with that green-haired kid instead of her partners. Do you think something happened to them?"

"Neither do I, Butch," Cassidy said. She grabbed his arm and forced him to meet her eyes. "But we've got to. If we don't, it's our own necks on the line. Now come on, let's keep following these kids. It looks like their going to Viridian City, but I don't want to risk beating them there only to find out that they've bypassed it."

"Good to see you again, Rey," he said weakly, spreading his arms wide. She looked at him, completely unimpressed.

"Don't try and pull the innocent act with me, Ash Ketchum," she said. "Maybe I haven't seen you for a couple of years, but we were best friends growing up and I know you a lot better than you realize." She stepped close until her face was right in his, and lowered her voice to a whisper. "I know what it feels like; I've been there. I also know what it feels like to be treated badly. You'd better treat her right, or I'll be coming after you."

As Ash began to sweat, Rey stepped back and spoke normally again. "Even Masters get caught up in their training," she said to him. "Just try to remember the people around you too, 'kay?"

Ash stood still, a little unsure of what to do as Rey turned and greeted Brock. "I guess she doesn't know me a well as she thinks she does," he muttered under his breath, beginning to wish that he'd run after May instead of Dawn.

"So, Brock, do you remember our battle?" Rey asked. He laughed.

"Do I ever! That was one of the best battles that I ever had as gym leader! I thought I had you beat easily when Geodude took out your Rattata in one attack, but your Bulbasaur was fantastic; I still can't believe that you combined Razor Leaf with Petal Dance to make a Leaf Storm, even though your Bulbasaur didn't know the attack. Using Petal Dance to create a cloud of leaves, and then using Razor Leaf to propel it into Onix was just fantastic. I still haven't seen anything like it since."

Rey laughed. "How'd Ash do against you?" she asked.

"Well, he won the second time, but it was kind of a fluke. I actually ended up just giving him the badge because he walked out in the middle of the battle."

"What?" Rey asked, completely shocked. "Why would he do that?" Brock smiled, remembering the first time he'd battled the fourth trainer from Pallet.

The Gym was dark; as usual, Brock kept his eyes partially closed. Over time he had discovered that this helped him to sense both his and the opponent Pokemon's movement in battle. It was a technique that he would adapt for life, although he did not know it at the time.

The heavy stone doors slowly creaked open. Brock stirred on the hard, granite seat; he could only assume that this was the fourth and final beginning trainer from Pallet Town. He was determined to win this match, feeling mortified with himself for losing three in a row against rookies.

"I'm here for a Gym Battle," the trainer declared boldly, stepping forwards. Brock made out a Pikachu at his side and grinned inside. If this trainer was using a Pikachu, the battle should be a piece of cake. The lights snapped on and Brock vaulted from his chair, landing neatly on the gym floor. He recited the rules of the Pewter Gym and Ash sent his Pikachu forward.

Moving back to his battle box Brock decided to end the match right there and then, sending out his Onix. The Pikachu shot out a weak electric attack which did absolutely nothing to the rock-snake. One quick Bind attack from Onix, and the match was over. He watched as the young trainer ran from the Gym with the Pikachu in his arms, feeling a little sympathy. He could only imagine how humiliating it must be to lose so badly...

He was surprised the next day when the trainer returned, looking more confident than ever. They began the rematch, with the trainer sending out a Pidgeotto and Brock choosing Geodude. It didn't take long for the flying-type to be knocked out, but Ash stunned Brock by choosing his Pikachu as his final Pokemon. He was stunned again when a much more powerful electric attack than the one used the day before knocked out his Geodude cleanly. A grudging respect began to grow for the young trainer; even though both of his choices were at massive type disadvantages, the trainer refused to give up and found ways to win. Brock could see raw talent, and he admired the boy for it.

He knew that the match was his to win though, and he sent out his Onix for a rematch of the day before. He watched grimly as the rock-type used a Bind on the Pikachu again. The young trainer shouted out an attack command desperately but the electricity had absolutely no effect, deflecting off of Onix to smash harmlessly into the ceiling. Brock knew that he'd won again.

Then Onix roared out in pain; Brock gasped in shock as the sprinkler system, razed by the electricity, short-circuited and sent torrents of water downwards, drenching everything on the field. He didn't see what happened next but a blinding flash lit the Gym and Onix crashed to the floor, releasing the Bind as it moaned in pain.

"Wait, let me see if I've got this right," Rey interrupted. "Ash won the match because the sprinklers went off?" She roared in laughter, causing Brock to frown.

"In our first match I could see that the Bind attack was really hurting Pikachu, and it was in no state to fight. So I called the bind off. Ash forfeited the match and took his Pikachu to the Pokemon Centre. In our rematch, it was Onix who couldn't fight anymore, because of a fluke more than anything else. The water combined with the electricity to do what electricity alone couldn't do. But Ash called off the match again. He knew that winning because of malfunctioning sprinklers wasn't really winning at all. He just walked out of the Gym, there and then."

"So why'd you give him the badge if he didn't beat you?" Rey asked.

"A gym badge signifies a trainer's skill; defeating a gym leader takes lots of hard work to do. But what happens if a trainer comes close to victory and just can't quite pull it out in the end? Ash may not have had the raw power or the right strategy, but he proved that he had the right heart. That's why I gave him the badge."

"Wow," Rey said. "I didn't realize that there was more to gym battling then just beating a trainer. So how come you decided to leave the gym and follow Ash?" Brock chose not to answer straight away, diverting his gaze instead to the large Venusaur that stood nearby, eyes closed as it rested in the sun.

"So, I'm guessing that this evolved from your Bulbasaur?" he asked her. She nodded proudly. "Yup, the same. I've kept her with me all of this time, even though I never actually competed in a League."

"Why not?" Brock asked, surprised. "You did a fantastic job against me, and I've always thought that you could get into the top eight." Rey shrugged.

"It just never worked out for me," she said. "I was doing really well at first, but by the time I got to the sixth gym I'd just worn my Pokemon out. I was travelling so quickly that I never trained my Pokemon properly. I never did beat the sixth gym, or any other gym for that matter. I just wasn't strong or smart enough to realize that I had to train my Pokemon before I could battle with them." Ash finally snapped out of his thoughts and wandered over.

"What other Pokemon do you have, Rey?" he asked, looking at her Venusaur.

"Take a look!" she smiled, throwing two more balls into the air. In the familiar burst of red light, a Farfetch'd and a Xatu appeared.

"Awesome, a Farfetch'd and Xatu!" Ash said, gazing at the two Pokemon. "You must have had a hard time catching them, they're both really rare!"

"It's easier than people think," Rey smiled as Dawn reappeared in the group.

"She's on her way back," she said to them. "I think she's okay now." Rey looked uneasily in the direction that May had run.

"Do you think I should go ahead?" she asked them.

"No," Dawn said, shaking her head. "I think you should be here; I kind of got the feeling that she wanted to talk."